the aftermath of witnessing poverty.

One of the blessings of witness poverty is that it brings a lot of things into sharp focus.

Oh, not at first. At first, that is there and this is here, and the two are quite literally worlds apart. At first, when you're thrown back into life as you know it, you're just trying to keep up, to adjust, to find that rhythm again.

But then, the truth of there starts to seep into the reality of here. This is where I am now, where I find myself hyper-aware of how very much I have, and how very little I really need. I'm convicted about how much of that excess, that waste, is due to my own selfishness and laziness. I have two spatulas because if I use it one night, I don't want to have to wash it before I can use it the next night. I buy more socks and underwear so I have to do laundry less often. I have way too many thrift-store things to make over, or half-finished projects laying around, because I actually consider shopping a hobby. I have this wonderful house that, while it isn't huge by American standards, is definitely more house than one person needs.

So the question that I'm left with is, now that I'm realizing all of these things, what am I going to do about it?