Heading to Walmart on a weekend two weeks before Christmas can really bring out the Scrooge in the best of us. To avoid making this unbearable my wife and I went to our local mega-Walmart at 7:15 am. Believe me we were not the first ones there.

The task at hand was to find a book to put menus and recipes from meals served around the wedding of a friend’s daughter. Since there were guests from out of country being housed there were 4 menus and 29 recipes to be remembered and celebrated.

While there we ventured into the food produce section. The great part of shopping at Walmart a short time after opening is that everything is so neat, the aisles seem so big and it’s all so full. At that time of the morning the produce section is so impressive, everything full and colourful.

But standing there admiring and appreciating the beautiful scene I began to think of abundance and then I couldn’t help but contrast with parts of the world we serve.

I thought again about this as I looked at a picture of a woman preparing food in a refugee camp in Northern Kenya. She had no need to choose a recipe. This family had just received rice, beans, oil, salt and sugar and were preparing their “first meal in several days”. Those ingredients made a meal that “was the best I have had in a year. I was satisfied”.

This Christmas while you’re shopping in a grocery store or even sitting at home working through recipe choices, stop and reflect. My advice is to first be thankful and secondly be thoughtful.

And as an afterthought, decide whether or not you’re satisfied.