More Diary of an Early American Boy

This morning we were reading more of our new favorite boy book: Diary of an Early American Boy.  The below paragraph from page 40 was especially meaningful (to me) and I wanted to share it.  I've bolded my favorite part.

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In modern times when everything a person needs may be bought in a store, there are very few handmade things left.  So we are robbed of that rare and wonderful satisfaction that comes with personal accomplishment.  In Noah's time, nearly every single thing a person touched was the result of his own efforts.  The cloth of his clothing, the meal on the table, the chair he sat in, and the floor he walked upon, all were made by the user.  This is why those people had an extraordinary awareness of life.  They knew wood intimately; they knew the ingredients of food and medicines and nicks and paints because they grew it and ground it and mixed it themselves.  It was this awareness of everything about them that make the early American people so full of satisfaction, so grateful for life and all that went with it.  Nowadays modern conveniences allow us to be forgetful, and we easily become less aware of the wonders of life.