Chicken Soup for Thought and Soul...

I am sure sometime or the other in our lives we have all gone without food due to some reason or the other...many a times we have also rejected the food put before us saying, "Chheeee....i don't like this stuff"...yet other times we have gone without food to express our anger or because we were sulking or because we wanted our demands to be met by our parents or because we had a fight with our sibling or spouse and wanted to express our displeasure and make the person we fought with feel guilty...the reasons for refusing to eat food put before us are endless. We have all also left food uneaten in our plates due to reasons like we took more than we could eat, or we didn't like the taste, or we had to rush somewhere, etc., etc... The reasons for wasting food either by refusing to eat at all or not eating everything you took in your plate are myriad, but I wonder if any of us or how many of us have ever stopped and contemplated our actions...having refused to eat or leaving food in your plate uneaten, have we ever given it another thought?

Since the time I was a toddler, I've shown a marked disinterest towards food...the eating of it, and later, the making of it too (people become fat even without eating the diet of 3...so please don't let my figure fool U into thinking that I am a foodie). But my mother drilled it into me from early on that one has to finish what one has in his plate...never throw away the food...take only as much as you are sure you can finish... Since my childhood to this age, there have been many a times when I have felt hunger pangs and have craved something to eat...while sometimes I've tried to find excuses to skip meals. However, if I claim to know what true hunger is, how it feels to feel talons clawing at the insides of my stomach begging for food and water, then I'd be lying to you all. With God's grace, there has always been bread on my table and wine in my glass (figuratively speaking). However, this picture made me stop...it wrote horror on my face and left me feeling helpless and very small as a person.

Here is a child who collapsed from hunger right there on earth with the harsh sun trying to squeeze out whatever life he has left in him and the vulture waiting patiently to feed on his body. THIS IS HUNGER...this is desperation...this is what makes me wonder will I ever be forgiven for refusing the gifts God gave me and wasting what is so precious? While we crib about eating what we don't like, this kid hungers for a single morsel of wholesome food....while we let the water run like we have some secret reservoirs full of it somewhere, this child yearns for a mouthful of clean drinking water...while we leave uneaten food in our plates when we go to hotels, this child lives the nip and sting of hunger beyond comprehension....while we crib about having to eat bland food in order to maintain our figures, this kid aches for a piece of bread....while we lament our fates for not giving us enough money to experience five star luxury, this kid cries out and asks whoever is ready to listen, "why me?".

This says it all....   http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1047149183574

         

Perhaps it is time to take stock of our lives and count our blessings for there are many. I think it is time we learnt to share our good fortune with the less fortunate and stop cribbing about the dark clouds that would anyway disappear once it has rained (metaphorically speaking). 

A very poignant verse comes to my mind written by Trench...whoever he is ;))

It goes as follows:

Some murmur, when their sky is clear

And wholly bright to view,

If one small speck of dark appear

In their great heaven of blue:

And some with thankful love are filled,

If but one streak of light,

One ray of God's good mercy, gild

The darkness of their night.

Let's be the thankful lot rather than the cribbing one.

...Chew on it!! :)