Inconvenienced

Last week, the South where I live, descended into a hell of snow and ice. We were stranded, stuck, held captive in our home for the better part of 4 days. I hate winter, hate snow (except for when I go to it and leave it behind) and definitely hate ice storms.

Sunday night into Monday we had about 5 inches of snow. Monday it started freezing rain/sleet - there is supposedly a difference but I don't know what it is and, I guess I don't really care. The snow and then the ice and the fact that the City of Atlanta and most of the surrounding burbs have about 25 snowplows/sanders. Can you believe that? In fact, I heard that the City of Atlanta has only 12 snowplows. I'm generously adding 13 because I believe that between the counties of Cobb, Forsyth, Gwinnett there may have actually been 13 extra snowplows.

But let me put this in perspective…we had food, we had heat, internet access, and no one was injured in the melee of trying to drive in the South in ice and snow. So why am I all whiny? We didn't have mail, no daily papers, and we couldn't really get in our car and go anywhere. But, can I tell you, in all honesty, I was miserable. I couldn't go to the pool, yoga was cancelled, pilates was cancelled.

But all my whininess and frustration made me think about my whininess and frustration. And other people. People live in war zones for years with absolutely freaking nothing - happy for an occasional meal, to be able to go outside without having bullets fired around them. Happy to be able to get clean water. The women we work with in Bogota are forced to give up absolutely everything they have, lose family members and have to flee to a place they don't know with kids in tow, no money, no jobs, no home…And I've got the guts to be whiny and inconvenienced. What an absolutely crazy, ridiculous, self absorbed way of thinking.

When I put my own little piece of the world into perspective by keeping the broader world, the impoverished, the sick, and those who really are inconvenienced in my thoughts, it keeps me and my whacked out little mind in line! I realize how incredibly lucky I am, every day!

As we continue in to the New Year of 2011, I renew my commitment to remember that I am so lucky - through some dumb luck and some hard work - to be where I am doing what I am doing. I renew my commitment to tackle the issues of poverty and the need to address women's issues with grace, strength, creativity and the determination to make a difference.