Showing posts with label jOy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jOy. Show all posts
Frugality and the Simple Life
As a kid, I learned the
value and importance of savings from my parents, especially my father. We
wanted for little, but lived tightly. When I was in 6th grade these air pump
shoes were very popular and very expensive for the time ($80-$100). The shoes
were supposed to inflate a bit when compressing this round bubble emblem and
give an advantage when playing basketball. I wanted shoes like that. Not
because I was athletic or anything of the sort, but because they were neat and
different.
My brother however, by
the age of 5 or 6 had become so spoiled that when it was my birthday my mother
decided to gift him a small cheap gift. The gift she chose was a candy bar.
When we were opening gifts, my brother opened his and cried out “It’s A CANDY
BAR!” and a hysterical temper tantrum followed.
Nowadays, I’m in my
thirties and I look around at all these man-made devices and the current
generation of want and must have and the get the next best thing way of
American life. I wonder if this modern life is for me. I’ve often felt like I
might have been born into the world a few years or even a decade too late based
on my likings. We are living unnaturally in a man-made world with trappings
that imitate life and our essence. Underneath the mainstreaming of our desires we
secretly and subconsciously crave simplicity, desperately.
I think back to my
childhood and remember all the summers of playing on my grandparent’s farm. They
were poor but completely supported themselves, self-sufficient and again wanted
for nothing. I think about my
grandmother’s very simple life as a widow and I envy her way of life, in a way.
She woke up before dawn, did her daily chores, made meals for family, and would
write poetry while staring out the window when by herself to pass the time.
Television and no other media distraction was ever a part of her life. My
grandparents had a TV; they just never turned it on. I remember my grandmother
saying the people on TV were silly.
Express Your Inner Child
When I was a kid I was fascinated by the concept of trap doors. This may have come from the repeated use of them on shows I watched such as “Masters of the Universe”. One day I set out to make a trap door. I had found a button detached from something electrical as it had wires running from it. I thought if I simply attached the button appropriately to something near where I imagined the trap door to be, that it would work. Attach the button, press it when ready to release someone into an abyss beneath the earth and that was it. This required a great deal of belief of course. It didn't actually work as I had hoped. Nevertheless, sometimes we need to think, hope, and believe like a child does --- without the sense of doubt or fear of defeat. We need to regain our anything is possible mentality.
21 Kind Things You Can Do Today
1. Say
"Good morning" to a person standing next to you in the elevator.
2. Pay
the toll for the driver behind you.
3. Offer to
pick up groceries for an elderly neighbor, especially in extreme weather.
4. Give a
homeless person your to go box.
5. Put a coin in an expired meter with an occupied
parking space.
6. Help a mother carry her baby
stroller up the stairs, or hold a door open for her.
7.
Each time you get a new item of clothing, give away something old.
8.
Bring your assistant coffee.
9. Out of
the blue, send flowers to a friend.
10. When you're on a crowded train or bus, offer your
seat to an elderly, disabled or pregnant person.
11.
Let a fellow driver merge into your lane.
12. Offer to baby-sit for a single mom.
13. Call
or write to a teacher who changed your life.
14. Bring a box of doughnuts to share at the
office.
15. Forgive
someone a debt–and never bring it up again.
16. Write
a note to the boss of someone who helps you, and explain how great a job that
person is doing.
17. Throw
away your trash—and someone else's—after a movie, picnic or visit to a park.
18. Encourage
someone who seems despondent.
19. Volunteer
to take care of a friend's dog while he is vacationing.
20. Offer change when the person in front of
you at the register comes up short.
21. Pass along a great book you've just
finished reading.
From the December 2000
issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.
For the Love of Animals
On the Facebook page, a photo album to inspire you to advocate animal rights and to enjoy their simple beauty and nature.
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