Are You Rich?

Don’t worry – this post isn’t necessarily about my cat, but I am going to talk about her because she has just made me think about a few things lately and realize how blessed I am. Since my mom volunteers at the Humane Society, she unfortunately knows firsthand the amount of cats that get euthanized every month. The numbers are staggering, and that's just for Wichita Falls (and doesn't include dogs). This also doesn't include all the stray, starving cats or cats in homes that are abused. My cat's mom was found with her litter of kittens on the street. They were fostered by a sweet woman until they could go up for adoption, and that's when we got Carrie. I obviously don’t have the stats on this, but I’m guessing the percentage of cats in good homes compared to the number of cats born worldwide is very very low. She is so incredibly lucky, but she can never comprehend that because, well, she’s a cat.

Unfortunately most of the time I, like my cat, don’t realize how blessed I am. Rather, I usually look at those who have more than me and feel inferior. When I drive past the mansions in Highland Park, I always look longingly at them and wonder what it would be like to live there. Living in Dallas and being surrounded by so much flashy wealth, it's hard not to think you don't measure up.

But then I thought about my cat, and compared her "luck" to mine. I thought of all the people living in third world countries who are starving. Their children die of diarrhea because they can't get medicine that we can go to Walgreens and get for $2. I also think of all the people who are abused or sold into human trafficking. Even in the US, there are so many people who are living in poverty. Just like my cat, my mind can't comprehend the amount of suffering that goes on around the world and how incredibly blessed I am to have what I have.

A friend of mine posted this link: http://globalrichlist.com/index.php. You can type in your income and it shows you where you rank compared to the rest of the world. I'm sure when you read the title of my post, you thought "no, I'm not rich." But when you compare yourself to the rest of the world, it’s pretty crazy to see how rich you really are. Hopefully I can remember this next time I start comparing myself to others and feeling like I don’t measure up.