Money, Money, MONEY!!!!
(Before I get started I’ve started a new blog page at tianastarmusic.wordpress.com if you also want to follow that! Thanks!)
It does seem like it’s all about money sometimes (or all the time). I KNOW that money can’t buy you love (as The Beatles so aptly sang), and that money is no replacement for anything that really matters and fills our hearts. However, we do need money for necessities like food, water, clothes, shelter, gas, cars, and so on and so forth. Let’s not even go there about things we don’t need!
In these times of economic hardship, it seems that money and saving money is on everyone’s minds. Some try to cut expenses out of necessity, and others to be wise and frugal. My family and I are no different. I’ve been learning to coupon (www.TheKrazyCouponLady.com) and cut out a lot of things like memberships, cable, and whatever else we can so that we can get by and pay our necessity bills.
I also know that being an American, and having enough food, water, clothing and a place to live, not even counting my bicycle, a car, a cell phone and my other non-essentials that I’m blessed to have, make me one of the richest people in the world.
I found this amazing and informative article on Yahoo! Finance by Laura Rowley titled “You Might Be Richer than You Think.” I was shocked to hear some of these findings she cited.
(http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/moneyhappy/204898)
Here are some excerpts from the article: 1. Are you planning a sumptuous dinner today? More than 1 billion people – nearly a sixth of the world’s population — are faced with chronic hunger. 2. Did you spend more than $2.50 on the ingredients for your Thanksgiving menu? More than three billion people — almost half the world’s population — live on less than $2.50 a day, according to the World Bank. 3. Can you turn on the faucet to fill the water glasses for dinner, and be confident that clean water comes out of the tap? According to the World Bank, 1.2 billion people lack access to a reliable water source that is reasonably protected from contamination. 4. Are the kids relishing a little time off from school? More than 70 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not enrolled in school in 2005, according to a United Nations Report. 5. Will someone in the family read a holiday poem or blessing before you dive into the feast? Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names, according to a UNICEF report.
After reading the above article, I hope it changed your perspective, as it changed mine. We focus so many times on what we don’t have, or even let the fear of losing it all ruin our lives. But life is so unsure anyway, we should be thankful to have another day of life and for all we do have.
(My sister Linnea volunteering at an Orphans’ home during her time as an Art Teacher in Tanzania, Africa)
Thank you for reading, and as always, please feel free to comment and perhaps share how blessed you are and any ideas on how we can help others, or even a story about how someone helped you when you needed it!
To Give or not to Give…Up
To Give, or Not To Give… Up
Sometimes I feel like giving up, on so many things. On my friends that never call me first, I always have to call them first and hope they’ll call me back or write me.
I feel like giving up on always trying to lose weight. Am I not good enough the way I am? When will it be good enough? Don’t I need to love myself. I mean it’s one thing to eat healthy and exercise on a consistent basis. But am I not allowed to have a chocolate bar once or twice a week? COME ON!
But then, I remember and think about so many people in the world who don’t have enough to eat. Who don’t even have any family or friends to lean on when they’ve lost everything. People who have been sold into slavery. 1.2 Million children are trafficked every year throughout the world. (Source: Various, Noted by UNICEF)
I then think. I CAN’T GIVE UP! I may have my problems, we all do, but the truth is that living in this country, and with a loving family as I have, my lowest points of life may never even be compared to some people’s daily lives. When faced with the way that most people live, these things I often worry about don’t seem as important.
I look at my sleeping 2 year old son and my amazing husband who loves me very much. I think of my mother, father and sister 70 miles away who just drove to visit us today.
I realize even if my friends don’t call me back. Even if I gain 10 lbs, stay the same, or lose weight. Even if I lose my health and all my looks. I do have people who love me and would do anything for me. So many people on this earth have never had that, and may never have that.
So. I WILL GIVE UP my selfishness and my pride that thinks I know why my loved ones aren’t calling me- perhaps they’re going through a harder time than me and I need to keep reaching out.
I WILL GIVE UP feeling bad about myself if I don’t lose a pound this week, or even if I gain one. Because I am exercising and eating healthy, and that’s supposed to be the point, right? And more importantly, I’m trying to be a good person!
I WONT GIVE UP trying to give a voice to those who don’t have one.
I WONT GIVE UP loving even when I don’t feel loved, because our feelings often betray the truth.
AND I WON’T GIVE UP on me. I will remember “every day is new with no mistakes in it yet” as said by one of my favorite fictional characters ever- Anne of Green Gables. (Books by L.M. Montgomery)
And I WONT GIVE UP on my dream to adopt one or more children because Anne was an orphan, my mother was an orphan, and there are so many orphans in the world that I just know there’s one or more made for my home, and there’s definitely a lot we can all help even if it’s just through a letter, a donation, or our homes and hearts!
I WON’T GIVE UP trying to right any wrong that I can be a part of righting!
I WILL GIVE UP all things that keep me from being a light in this world.
