83. Just Plain Oatmeal
Two things recently intersected on vacation in Ocean City, New Jersey, The first thing was that I finished the book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryon Mealer. In it I had read of the near starvation of many people in the African country of Malawi. The second thing was that as my friend Pat visited me in Ocean City, I fixed oatmeal for breakfast and then discovered that there was no milk to have with it.
We ate the oatmeal, complete with some crushed pecans and some dried fruit from a trail mix package. I told her about Malawi and the people starving, and together we recognized that on any morning of that famine, they would have been delighted with our breakfast.
I’m in the process of publishing a book titled Graces to Sing to Tunes You Know, and throughout that book there is a theme of remembering the people who don’t have as much as I do.
Later in that day in Ocean City, I bought more milk. And I did it with gratitude and an awareness that it is evidence of abundance in my life. And somehow I think I will remember that morning of having just plain oatmeal.
