Your place of birth decides more or less if you live a life of plenty or if you are hungry and thirsty all the time. We are fortunate and grateful to have been born where we are (Western Europe), because we have never been hungry in our lives. Nor thirsty. Not really.

Compare that to people born in, for example, the slums of India (remember, we recently watched Slumdog millionaire). They have almost nothing, and finding food and clean water is a daily struggle. Even after watching Slumdog millionaire like we did, I cannot image what that must be like. Not really…

The contrast between rich and poor

So here we are, living in one of the richest parts of the world, where one of the biggest challenges currently faced by society is the growing number of people that are overweight and obese. And we are choosing to fast for our health. Try to explain that to the millions who are hungry all the time. The contrast is immense. And no little uncomfortable, as far as I am concerned.

Being grateful for what we have

Most of us tend not to think about it and just live our lives. A growing number of us is waking up and becoming more and more aware of the injustice of the differences between people, based solely on their place of birth. Even if we cannot directly change the situation, we can at least do our best to be mindful of our privileged lives and be very, very grateful for them.

So even though it’s tough to eat very little for a couple of days, and we do not feel great, we are still incredibly grateful and generally very happy. We constantly remind ourselves that we do not have anything to complain about. Not really…

We went grocery shopping today and bought fruits and vegetables for the next 2 days. And we took a walk and saw a stork and a roebuck. Both too far away and/or too quick to photograph, but Christophe managed to take some beautiful pictures worth sharing with you from other things. So please enjoy them and be grateful for what you have.