THANK GOD FOR THE LITTLE THINGS
by Al Behel

I had not expected what I was about to experience. It seemed like just another step in my educational process toward my college degree. Another visit to another state psychiatric hospital. Another look at mental illness.

For most of my life I remember secretly complaining that God had given me red hair and fair skin which would burn easily in sunlight. Each summer I thought maybe I would be able to tan like my friends and other family members. Why hadn't God blessed me with darker skin?

That day God brought me to my knees in gratitude for little things. I had visited many psychiatric wards and had seen adults and children lined up along the walls, rocking back and forth., oblivious to the stranger who stood before them. I had seen the back wards where patients were placed when there was no more hope of recovery.

As I walked onto the ward of this facility my heart cried out. My mind wanted to reject everything I saw. There were humans with twisted bodies, legs protruding where arms should be, grown men tied inside oversized baby beds, and deformities I cannot describe. Moving outside I heard a voice behind me softly and rapidly repeating the word, ""chewing gun, chewing gum." As I turned to see who was speaking to me, I gasped for air. There, standing in front of me, was a small person whose body looked to be about 10 years of age but with a completely developed head the size of a small orange or large lemon. He looked to be about 70 years old. I wept again.

As I left the hospital that day to return home I wept inside for the people I had just visited. I remember saying, ""God, thank you for my read hair and fair skin. Thank you for letting me be born with arms and legs in the right places. For giving me a fully developed body. Thank you, God, for the little things I have been whining about." That day changed my life permanently. Thank God for little things. Thank God for healthy children who leave toys in the floor and don't like liver. Thank God for giving us little obstacles to overcome and challenges to face.