Thursday, February 3, 2011

Queensland - beautiful one day, flooded the next... then you get a cyclone

After a terrifically awful start to this blogging thing, I think I need to change my habits.  Changing habits... much harder to do than say.

After one of the worst floods in the recorded history of Queensland and a category 5 Cyclone I got to thinking about how easy it is to take for granted the things that we cherish the most.  I have a running semi-serious joke with my wife that we "need a new TV".  We really don't.  The one that we have is more than adequate for our needs and was kindly donated to us by a family member.  After the tragedy of the floods and the storms, you realise how fortunate and how blessed you actually are.  The things I took for granted became valuable.  Like so many others I became truly grateful for all that I had and realised what was truly important.  After some further thought and seeing the outpouring of support from strangers to their fellow-men, I also became a little sad.  I realised that it shouldn't take some great tragedy to bring out those qualities in people.  I realised with a hint of guilt that for too long I had been content with sitting on my hands and watching others struggle through life as though I had performed some great deed that entitled me to the life that I live.  I also realised with a touch of sadness that in a matter of weeks or months or years that everything would return to the way it was and that the stranger I was working alongside in a flood affected house could quite possibly swear at me if I bumped into them accidentally in the Queen St Mall.  I promised myself that I would try not to let complacency become a habit again.