--- Is your quaility of life doing ok? Did you have a bad day? ---

Some days I wake up and get 'stressed' because I dont know what to do with my life. In all reality, it is because my blessings are so abundant and I have so many options. I should never complain about opportunity. Here I am, living in Europe, with a roof over my head, fresh food every day, reading and writing as I wish, with very supportive friends and family.I can move abroad and teach, apply to graduate school, work, or travel. I am the most fortunate girl in the world, and it is my goal of 2010 to never forget that. Every day is SUCH a beautiful gift.

Here is a breakdown of the world around us, it helped me with perspective....


If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would break down on a per person scale accordingly... There would be:

* 57 Asians
* 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
* 8 Africans
* 52 would be female 48 would be male
* 70 would be non-white 30 would be white
* 70 would be non-Christian 30 would be Christian
* 89 would be heterosexual 11 would be homosexual
* 6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.
* 80 would live in substandard housing
* 70 would be unable to read
* 50 would suffer from malnutrition
* 1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth 1, and ONLY 1 would have a college education
* 1 would own a computer

When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent. The following is also something to ponder... If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend an idealogical meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death...you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace ... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If you can read this article of perspective, you are more fortunate than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all. Of course, as I see the world today, perhaps that's not such a bad thing.