The magic dumpster...

These past few weeks, my eyes have been opened to the amazing amount of stuff that is thrown away. Brittany and I found the following in a dumpster at her apartment complex: a wooden table, plastic stool, unopened can of white paint, utility rack, an alarm clock, toaster, small animal carrier, a rolling storage rack, tupperware, a plastic bowl and serving tray, 2 brooms, a dust pan, a mop, comet cleaner, mr. clean & dishwashing soap, a water pitcher, a Hawaii coffee table book, & a car shade.

After thinking about it for a while, Britt and I came to the conclusion that someone in the apartment complex had been evicted. Apparently their belongings were just tossed out by the dumpster. I was hit by the uniqueness of this situation. Where else in the world can someone's belongings be tossed out like it was worthless?

I found myself reflecting on the situation some more and I was in a state of disbelief. In non-western countries, finding this kind of stuff by the trash just doesn't happen. The phrase "One man's trash is another man's treasure" suddenly came to life for me. How is it that we can discard 'things' so easily here? It's probably because we have options. Throw it away. Get another one. Not that big of a deal. What if 'things' were harder to come by? Or what if we realized that because we have so many options, other people have less options?

If I learned anything about this situation, its that I want to practice "thanksliving." Seeing everything I have been given as a blessing, even if its not the nicest or newest. The day that I can throw perfectly good things in a dumpster is the day that I forgot about most people in the world who will never know what it's like to have so many options.