AUTHENTIC APPRECIATION

---I was watching CNN the other day when something caught my eye. There was a village in Africa where the house had running water ''for the first time.'' The joy on the faces, young an old alike, was incredible. They were ALL beaming at the sight of the water coming into the house on-demand by simply pumping the well.

.---Now...no longer would the younguns' have to arise early to go to the river and get the daily supply of the H2O for the household. Matt Damon, the actor, was part of the project. That is, probably, why it got as much airtime as it did.

---I was thinking of how easy it is to take things for granted. When was the last time you found yourself marveling at the wonders of water? It has been over sixty years, myself. I have placed a lot of things in that category...if NOT everything. They speak of food, clothing and shelter to be what sustains life. But...all that would be in moderation.

---When I saw the authentic look of appreciation on the faces of the people in the village who had running water...I realized that I haven't seen that look in awhile. But, I have seen it. I've seen it in and out of the hospital. It usually happens when someone has been given something or has access to something that profoundly touches them. It is mostly something that they have deemed as important.

---If we have easy access to everything we find that it doesn't work any better than NO ACCESS to ANYTHING. We can see the sense that ''waste not...want not'' can make. Fear causes us to stockpile things to prepare for imagined future disasters. We have to realize that negativity projected at those times causes the very disasters that we are afraid of. Convenience is backfiring all around us. We realize that health is jeopardized if there is little movement in our lives. Frenetic worry is NOT the answer.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED OVER TWO YEARS AGO.