Foundations

I was talking on facebook earlier today with a former journalism teacher of mine. I don't know how the subject was broached (with me, I rarely know how a subject comes up at all.) However, we began talking about blessings and how we tend to take them for granted a lot of the time. The word blessings has a religious conotation to it, but by blessings, I just mean the really heart enriching things in life.

I think what is going on in the world is that we are becoming a society obsessed with "things." We all want to spend money on things, and possess them either to say we have them or to show off. We don't really stop and think about the "THINGS" we have that actually do matter; the effects that make life truly enjoyable from its core.

You know when you build a house, you can't erect it if you don't have the foundation to do so; it would collapse in on itself. I have concluded that understanding our "blessings" follows the same concept. I think that people nowadays are building the house, but they have no idea what is holding the structure up.

We purchase the Wii (I want one), the ipod, or some new gadget that has just been created to make our life "so much simpler". (And to be honest, I don't know what I would do without the ipod). We are buying all these fancy "blessings" that are fashioning the house. However, the house is in danger of falling unless we understand the simple structure underneath that makes all those things worthwhile.

Things as simple as family; the ability to just talk and conversate and play around with your loved ones. Things as simple as time; the right to take that second or two and just appreciate the silence. Things as simple as breathing; how often do we underestimate the power of our chest moving in and out? Things as simple as thinking; the ability to dwell on ideas and then getting to express those ideas out loud.

The dilemma is complex, but the answer is simple. (Funny how often that is the case, isn't it.) I have seen the foundation of a house first hand (my father is a brick layer) and let me tell you something, there is nothing extraordinary about it. It is a bunch of blocks that are mudded together on a concrete slab. It is a very simplistic look with not much to it. However, what that "simplistic" foundation is capable of is impressive. That elementary foundation can hold up a house that shelters a family of four and keeps them safe from violent thunderstorms and tornadoes or from the churning wind that rattles windows, it provides a safe place from the outside world and burglers and people who want to destroy a person's self-pride. The list can go on and on with what a foundation can do, but without it, the house will fall and we will be left without all of those things, including the simple ones, becuase we never took the time to build that foundation.

So maybe we should all do that, sit down and make a list of the things that we truly own in life: the family, the time, the friends, the breath, etc. Nothing should involve money (that is what you use to make the house flashy). On that list place the things that make us feel good at our core. Those things in life that prove that if you took away every single possession away, life would still be worth living. It would still be worth it to get up every day, because we know the materials that make up our foundation.

Keep this in mind, when you see a tornado or a hurricane ravage a home and tear it up from the floor to the roof, what is the one thing that never blows away? For those of you who can't figure it out....it would be the foundation. Chew on that thought for a while.