Recently, we saw on the TV screen the devastation in Central and South America caused by two hurricanes. Flies swarmed over piles of trash which had already been picked through many times by desperate victims trying to dig out something to eat, because other than those piles of trash, they had nothing. On their faces, there was little trace of hope.

At school, my little boy eats a box lunch prepared by his school. Every time he comes home, I open his lunch box and find that there is always a chicken thigh. He told me that all his classmates are sick of eating the same food all the time. What a contrast!

I remember back in the days when I was a child, I was so happy and so grateful just to have a bowl of rice. If I wanted to have some chicken with the rice, I had to wait for special occasions like New Year or when guests came to visit us. If a woman in the family gave birth to a baby, special food like sesame oil chicken would be prepared to give the mother extra nutrition. Then the children in the family would also have some chicken soup to eat. All the other children in the neighborhood would eat their hearts out! Today in Taiwan, children live in paradise. Parents are always worried that the food and the things they use in daily life are not good enough. They try everything they can to give their children the best. This may be why so many children today do not appreciate what they have.

Not long ago, a friend of mine visited the Abode of Still Thoughts in Hualien with some Tzu Chi members. By noon, she was already starved. Finally, lunch was served. Her eyes were bigger than her stomach, and she only ate half of the food she had taken. She then looked around to find a garbage can in which the leftovers could be dumped, but she failed to find one. At this time, a nun walked by.

"Where is the garbage can?" asked my friend.

Puzzled, the nun asked, "Why?"

"I took too much. I have to throw away the leftovers."The nun looked at her bowl and figured out what had happened. She pointed to the wall and said, "There it is!"

Following the nun's finger, my friend raised her head. Pasted on the wall was a quote from Master Cheng Yen: "Appreciate, cherish and cultivate blessings." Embarrassed, my friend went back to the table and ate everything up.