What are you whining about today? Are you put out with your spouse or your children? Are you frustrated with your parents? Let’s see…they are suffocating you with their attentiveness. Or maybe they are elderly. Taking care of elderly parents has the potential to be a laborious task. It is all too tempting to grumble about it. What about members of your extended family? They too are commonly targeted for nitpicking.

Can I make a suggestion? Stop in your tracks right now… Stop the complaining.  Read this account from Gil Sanchez, who directs Casa De Esperanza. Casa as it is commonly called is a children’s home located in Northern Mexico not far Chihuahua City. In Gil’s most recent report regarding the service they are providing to children, he shared this story:

A passerby noticed Nena and Manuel sitting on a busy street corner in Cuauhtémoc. After noticing that the children were still sitting on the same busy street corner several hours later, she called the police. The police brought the children to Casa and after conducting an investigation determined that they had been abandoned where they sat. The parent/s are unknown and because we have no birth certificate we are uncertain of their age. We estimate that Nena is two and Manuel is three years old.

I have made several trips to Casa to conduct medical and dental clinics over the years. I know firsthand what an exceptional job that Gil and his coworkers do to serve children like Nena and Manuel. After nearly 14 years of coordinating clinics in various Mexican cities, my heart still breaks when I read stories like this one. Most importantly I realize that I have nothing to whine about.

My parents were imperfect human beings. Imagine that! They did not live their lives flawlessly. As a parent, I have attempted to do a few things differently than they did. But I must say I was never abandoned. (I am sure there were days my mother wished that I would take a hike.) I was never mistreated. I was certainly not left on a street corner. Few of us have such an experience lurking in our past.

Gil’s story motivated me to figure out a way to serve the kids at Casa during a difficult time in Mexico’s history. And it also prompted me to think twice before whining about any aspect of my family life. Oh by the way…who abandons their children at a busy intersection in a city?  I suppose someone who was whining about being a parent…