Do You Appreciate What Others Have Built?

When was the last time you went for a walk, maybe around your neighborhood or maybe out in the city? Do you remember what were you thinking about? Where was your attention?

Maybe you were on your phone, texting or maybe scrolling through social media? Or, maybe you had a moment of quiet reflection where you were just absorbed by the beauty of your surroundings? A particular view, building, event, or small detail that happened to catch your eye?

Have you ever just thought, this humanity thing is just crazy? Look at the world we live in? How did we get here? How did all this happen? Do you take it for granted? Can you appreciate what it took for you have everything available to you in your life? The house you live in, the car you drive, the pathways you walk along, the trains or planes you use to quickly travel to other faraway destinations? Everything you benefit from is a result of someone else's efforts and sacrifices.

It’s hard to imagine the totality of human actions that have come before us. It's much easier to focus on the problems we see and get caught up in what we feel should be better; who or what is to blame for why things are not good enough.

Criticism can be a good thing if you have the intention to take those thoughts and translate them into actions that add onto the world we already have. But if it just stops at the criticism, then you depreciate what it took for others to create our amazing reality.

I get it; as citizens we should look for problems we see and think, “this or that isn't good enough; why isn't this or that better?” However, it is also important to take time and appreciate the world we live in and what others that have come before us have done so we can live in the contemporary paradise we have today.

One day a week, just turn your phone off and go out for an hour and marvel at every building, every road, every tree, and every convenience you have available to you. It's a simple way to express appreciation and in the process it also will make you more observant so that you CAN find ways to create your own value and add to the human experience.