The Water We Swim in

Excerpt from Daily Cures, Wisdom for Healthy Aging by Connie Mason Michaelis

I recently heard a powerful expression, “We no longer recognize the water we swim in.” The context of the statement was failing to appreciate how good we have it or acknowledging our many blessings that we may take for granted. The message is stated in many ways, but the primary intent is the encouragement to have a grateful heart. We genuinely need to count our blessings. So often we fall into our daily habits and challenges. Life seems at times to be a struggle, and we become numb to the blessings we swim in every day. Can you imagine a stranger that is poor, hungry, and deprived, walking into our home and seeing our abundance! That person would probably see us as wealthy and affluent beyond measure. Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. Most Americans drink that much coffee a day.

It is not only material abundance that we take for granted. Often we fail to see the value of family and friends. We have amazing support systems that surround us. Like water, we are buoyed up by so many people that we take for granted. Does the receptionist at the doctor’s office remember your name, does the postman deliver promptly and the person who delivers your paper put it close to your door? When we ‘go with the flow,’ the water seems comfortably undetectable, but if we land on dry land, we may be jolted into reality. Suddenly when we lose the ability to do something that was an ordinary part of life, we look back with envy and regret that we took it for granted. We take our health for granted until we are ill. So we should take a closer look at the water we swim in, come up for air, and look around. The water may be invisible, but it is powerful and needs to be respected.