We are lucky to have them, but we rarely appreciate how lucky we are. Leanne Elliott looks at six things we often take for granted.

Nearly all people living in Australia feel lucky to call it home. We have a gorgeous and contrasting landscape, from desert to rainforest and everything in between. Our surrounding oceans are blue fertile watery plains that keep us somewhat separate from the rest of the world. For the most part, people are friendly, helpful, and tolerant and we have freedoms that are still simply non-existent in many parts of the world.

You probably guessed it, I am one of those people who feel so lucky to call Country my home. So, I thought I would take this opportunity to point out some of the things we take for granted but cannot live without.

Earth – a place to call home

The fact that we live on a massive ball spinning through space, with everything we need to survive provided by our planet is down right amazing. And it’s pretty obvious, there is no planet B. So, if we stuff this one up we have nowhere to go, and no one else to blame but ourselves.

Clean running water

We use it to drink, to fill our pools, to water our gardens, to wash ourselves and our belongings. Yet, despite our huge technological advances, like being able to send machines to Mars, there are still millions of people who do not have access to clean running water.

Human consciousness

The ability to recognise your own existence is pretty special. To be able to feel, to reflect on our lives, who we are, and our dreams for the future.  To be able to connect and process the dots made up by our surroundings and to experience our world in a way that is unique to humans.

Human contact

Now, this is something we all took for granted until recently. Lockdowns prevented so many from having human contact, but it was not until it was taken away we realised how essential it is to our health and wellbeing. Lack of human contact can profoundly affect our psyche.

Personal freedoms

All over the world personal freedoms have been under siege. Freedom of expression and movement are two of the main causalities. It is time people realise that they are not personal freedoms or human rights if they can be taken away by those in a position of power.

Order

Though our system is far from perfect, with the chaotic scenes we have witnessed in the past few years (including violence sparked by a lack of toilet paper) the fact we have a generally stable system that provides us with a level of order which allows our modern, busy world function is something we should definitely be grateful for.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels