Today, as I sat on my bed, I imagined what my life would be like if I had more money, more cars, more women, more love, more food, more of everything I've ever desired. But then I realized, that there are people poorer than I am, with fewer accessories that I have, with less joy than I hold,and in worse situations than I have been, yet still grateful and hopeful.
On a chilly day in November, driving home from work, ideas ran through my mind on how I could get richer, smarter, better snd continually wanting more, more and more, until suddenly a car swerved into my lane without realizing I was on her blindspot. As miniseconds ran by, I felt the world pause around me, and reflections of the past ran through my mind. With an unexplainable instinct, I managed to escape an accident. Instatly, my perceived reality of the world changed.
Still in shock, I had a flashback to a sunny sunday in Nigeria when I was thirteen. As I was driving back from church with my mother, an idiom written on a truck struck my eyes. It said, "I complained I had no shoes, until I saw someone without legs." I immediately showed my mother, and she replied, "Toye, you've got to be grateful for what you've got, because you never know what anyone else is going through."
So I asked myself, why did it take me so long to interprete my mother's sayings?Why did it have to occur when I almost had an accident? Why? Why didn't it happen when I lost my father or when I lost my best friend? I guess it happened for a purpose.
Upon returning home, images of the incident flashed through my mind, so I imagined how my life would have changed if I had gotten into an accident. First, I would have to come up with the money to repair my car, considering insurance does not pay for it, I would miss a big exam I had to take that week, I would lose money for not going to work, and mostly I might have lost my life. But then again, I realized that my life was still worth living, nothing had been lost, and I could have moved on with life like nothing ever happened.
However, I saw this as a sign from God to be thankful, not for the big promotions, lottery win, new car, new family, new job, but for the little things. The mere fact that our cells continually work relentlessly to make us alive is worth being thankful for. My abilityto choose what clothes to wear, and to find a soft spot on my pillow to lay my head counts for more than a blessing.
So, everyday, I wonder, how something so little could do something so big. Life is worth being appreciated. One might say that life is not fair. Truth be told, life sucks. However, when you give life another chance and open your heart towards your dream again, posterity would prove that dreams eventually become reality.
