I live with gratitude and appreciate everything I have as humbled as possible. Seeing so many people pass away during the pandemic has opened my eyes to a new gratitude that I had never experienced before. I now understand that no one is promised tomorrow and we must live our lives to the fullest. We must appreciate the air we breathe from the moment we wake up. To truly understand it is a blessing to wake up to life everyday and have the opportunity to a new day is a true miracle. As a single mom I can remember my moments of struggle and I would always remember it could have been worse. I could have been homeless. I could have not had the ability to feed my son or myself. So many other negative possibilities could have occurred. However, I realized struggles are nothing more than life lessons and bumps in the road. They allow you to see what life can be. They allow you to appreciate your life and understand how grateful you are to be able to live another day. I live with gratitude and appreciate everything I have by showing others my thankfulness. I constantly thank those for all they do. I show others how they are valued and appreciated. My son and I give to local charities as I remember the struggles of not having some of the basic things that most take for granted. I constantly remind my son how grateful we are to have a home and things that others may not have. Also, I show and tell him how to be humble, grateful and appreciative.

The biggest problem facing the world right now is the act of being selfish. All of the major problems stem from people being selfish and the pandemic has heightened selfish acts as so many are trying to fend for themselves. From television shows normalizing selfish acts to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on the Oscars. Our world is saturated with selfish images which impacts our children as well as adults. The problem can be resolved but it truly starts at home. We must remember the selfless lessons taught by our grandparents and past them down to our children. We must teach our children to have respect for all people as well as their opinions. We must teach our children the act of togetherness and family and why it’s so important to rely on each other when faced with adversity. We must teach our children about loyalty, honesty, and dependability. We must teach our children about acts of kindness and humility and how they can impact others. We must teach our children to simply love they neighbors and fellow man and the importance of helping others. Teaching the aforementioned items can be reinforced by parents modeling those same acts so children can visually see and understand the importance of such lessons. The family unit is the key to removing selfish acts from the home. It starts one household at a time and can be achieved with will, determination, and the overall goal of wanting to envision your household become a happy place for all that enter. The world would be a better place if each household took ownership and accountability for selfish acts. Yes we have countless images of selfishness in the world but it’s up to us as parents to teach our children what the standard of living should be.