127 Hours

Growing up we are taught to be thankful for the things we have in our life; things like a house over our head, food, an education, and many other things.  I feel like I was told to be thankful for things all the time.  And I have always been thankful.  I think I can say I never took things for granted or never appreciated having things in my life.  But now I am starting to realize, how can I really appreciate things or be thankful for things if I've always had them?  If I don't know what if feels like to not have them?

There is a scene in 127 Hours that has stayed in my head since I saw it years ago.  The scene where he finally got to drink water has stuck with me after all these years.  Now when I drink water I appreciate the fact that I can choose when to drink it.  I love the refreshing feeling of it sliding down the back of my throat getting rid of that annoying dehydrated feeling in my mouth.    

Now that I am at Gubbio, I am having a lot of these "I never realized how great it is to have this feeling" type of moments,  Here are a couple of them:

- I love the feeling of being able to cut my finger and toe nails.  Cutting my nails gets rid of my alertness to how long they are; and my insecurity of people seeing the length of them.

- I love the feeling of soap or shampoo touching my body; and the pleasant aroma that fills the room as I squeeze it out of the bottle.

-  The feeling of finally being able to lay down after a long day is now remarkably better, being more conscious of my feet.  Being able to change my socks and get that tight and warm feeling from a fresh pair.  Being able to lift them up and feel all the pressure from the long stressful day vanish.  And being able to spread and stretch them out looking for that perfect position to fall asleep to.

- I love the thought of having a life.  Don't get me wrong, my life has been full of blessing and lots of love; and I have always been happy.  But I am learning to appreciate everything that comes my way, good and bad.  I am very lucky to have things, any and all things, going on in my life.  Being around people whose life, because of the injustice of poverty, is just ticking away has really impacted me.  I feel like I see people do the same thing everyday; and that is just wait for the day to be over.  The idea of living my life to the fullest has grown more in the last month than it has in my entire life.
   
I look forward to the many other things the guests at The Gubbio Project will teach me.