It’s a very subjective topic, “having it all”. It depends on which set of standards you live by. To some it would probably look like a mansion, staff to do everything for you, oodles of money that you don’t actually have to work for, the best clothes and the best cars, and a private jet waiting to take you anywhere you want to go, on a whim.
But if you were to ask a homeless person what having it all means to them, it would probably be much simpler and scaled down. They’d probably reply with something like, a roof over your head, food in the fridge, clean water when you turn on the tap, and comfy bed to sleep in at night and a general feeling of safety, within the four walls of your house.
Honestly this is where my head goes when I think of having it all. I’m so very grateful that I am able to live like this. Right now we also have our health, which way too many people take for granted. My legs move, my arms move, my brain works. I’m not in pain other than the aches just from being in my late forties, especially when I’m not exercising or doing yoga enough.
I don’t have oodles of money but I make enough to pay the bills. The daily struggle is real when everything is so flipping expensive these days but at least we do have “enough”. Every night I’m able to have a relaxing, hot bubble bath before I crawl into my comfy bed. So very grateful. My house is definitely not large, it’s average, for my city. The house I lived in previous to this one was tiny so I’m grateful for more space.
Each morning I wake up between five and six am and I have my coffee, then another coffee and a piece of toast. I read the blogs on WP and then write my own. Two weeks ago I had a nasty cold/flu that lasted longer than I’d hoped but as I was sitting on my couch in the morning with my laptop, coffee, my Vicks ointment, my box of Kleenex and I’d just popped a couple of Tylenol to take some of the malaise away, I was thinking, imagine feeling like this and being homeless.
No comfy couch to sit on with a big cozy blanket, no Tylenol or Vicks or even a box of Kleenex at the ready. You wake up in the morning in the shelter but by seven am they kick everyone out and so you wander the streets or hang out in little corners with your peers. Your nose is runny and you feel like crap but you have nothing to make you feel better and what’s worse, you’ve got even less than the basics. Probably hungry and slightly dehydrated. Your cold/flu isn’t going away anytime soon. I can’t imagine.
I don’t mean to sound like I’ve set my bar so low that anything above homelessness is something to toot your horn about. I just mean that I think you have to be grateful for what you do have, even if it’s not the best of the best.
It all depends on what’s important to you. When I was young and full of ego, I had imagined the most elaborate life filled with wealth, and if someone would’ve given me a glimpse into where I am right now, I would’ve said like no, like ew, I will do better than that. I probably would have imagined a much bigger house, more money in the bank and just more glamour in general. But now I’m older and smarter and I know those things do not equal “having it all”. Not at all.
bloom.planted.north 
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