“When eating a fruit, think about the person who planted the tree.” -Vietnamese proverb
I recently traveled to Ecuador and stayed alongside the banks of the beautiful Napo river, in the Amazon Rainforest. This is where I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Vargas, a kind, calm and knowledgeable man who has lived his entire life in the Amazon.
You can only access Mr. Vargas’ house by boat down the Napo river, followed by a walk through the shore break and into the forest. He calmly walked me to his home where I met his shy wife Maria, who greeted me with a warm hug and a seat on their outside patio. Their calm, humble and sweet nature made me reflect on the simplicities of life. Mr. Vargas cut and shared his farm’s fruit with me, however, he shared something far more important, some life stories & lessons.
As Mr. Vargas’ shared his stories, his voice became more and more faint, I approached closer to him and perked up my ears carefully listening and hanging on to every word he said. He shared that the impressive, but polluted Napo river (which I had just traveled on by boat to get to his home) was the only source of water for his family as well as, small neighboring communities. Sadly, In 2001, Mr. Vargas’ daughter died from a water-related disease, caused by the dirty drinking water from the river. Since then his fight to have access to clean and safe drinking water has been strong, however, has NOT been easy.
For years Mr. Vargas fought with the government for the right and access to clean water. In fact, he only received access to clean drinking water in 2016 – the same year Beyonce turned lemons into Lemonade and that Brad & Angelina split up! Really though, can you believe it!?
In 2016- his fight for clean drinking water came to an end, making his community safer and healthier. While you turn on your tap today, take the time to think of what was important to you in the year 2016 as well as, what basic human rights you had access to.
This article is not to make you feel guilty, however, to empower you to feel gratitude for what you have. Work with the positive vibes of gratitude and not the negative vibes of guilt – So much more can come out of using that equation.
Simply some “fruit” for thought.
Remember : Gratitude NOT Guilt.*
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