I’m pretty slow to start the new year with my resolutions for change. It seems that each year, I am completely burnt out after the growing/harvest/preserving season then jumping right into the holiday season that by the time the new year begins, I only desire to sit and do nothing (ok, I want to chat on Twitter or take naps). And cook yummy food from all that I’ve put up!
I’ve been reading about what several others have been saying their resolutions are and for me, the only major things I need to change in my life this year is to get more exercise and more sleep! I have no problems eating what’s in my pantry as one big challenge I’ve seen people participate in. In fact, I try to live this way year round and am nervous we are going through our canned tomato and sauce supply way faster than I thought we would and I am trying to make the home-canned supply last til next summer! I’m sure it won’t at this rate.
I don’t need to challenge myself to do a 3 week jumpstart your diet challenge which is another big one I’ve seen written about to detox your body on a plant based diet. I eat a plant based diet and occasionally the very nutritious eggs from my own backyard chickens so this is a way of life for me, too. I also like to wait until springtime to do a liver cleanse, it’s too cold for me in the winter to do cleanses like that.
No, what I need to do (and began doing this past week) is something I saw written up on the Huffington Post called “Sleep Challenge 2010 – Women, It’s Time To Sleep Your Way To The Top, Literally.” Once I read that article, I knew I had to do it. I was resistant at first, I like going to bed between 12-1 am and sleeping in a bit in the morning but with an almost 6 year old boy as my daily alarm clock, I rarely get to sleep past 7 or 7:30 and that’s late for him. So I was getting around 6 or 6.5 hours of sleep each night. I have been dragging and some days, I’ve only gotten about 5.5 hours at night and that puts me over the cranky edge so I can’t function the way I want and need to.
I realize I have to get a minimum of 7 hours of solid sleep at night and preferably 8 hours of sleep every night to feel well. My son sleeps through the night for the past few years and even in his own room now. The only time he wakes us up at night is if he’s sick or had a bad dream. After suffering through several years of extreme sleep deprivation because of him, I should want to go to bed early and get 8+ hours of sleep every night! Why my resistance I wondered? I realized it’s because it’s “me time” for several hours in the evening. After we eat a family dinner, my husband does the bedtime routine with our son then has his guitar playing hour (or more) every night and I clean up and have things I catch up on, books I am reading or tv shows on Tivo to watch! I wind up waiting for my husband to watch certain shows with me and we seem to go to bed too late because of this. He always says he does better on 6 or 6.5 hours of sleep and if he sleeps longer than that, he’s dragging. I’m the other way around so I don’t believe him! Who can function well on 6 or 6.5 hours of sleep every night? Not me!
He is sort of doing this sleep challenge with me because consistent, solid sleep is so beneficial for your body in so many ways and he’s recovering from several weeks of some funky virus invading his body and doing strange things to him. Solid sleep also helps to prevent getting run-down and sick in the first place. Your immune system works better, you have more energy, you look younger and your mental state is in a much better place, too. There’s also evidence that not getting enough sleep makes you gain or retain weight and sufficient sleep helps you lose it! There really is not one downside to getting your “beauty sleep.” It is quite a challenge for me to get up to the 8 hour mark. I’m working on cutting back on my evening activities and getting more things done during the day.
This past week I’ve been aiming for 7-7.5 hours of sleep each night (by counting backwards from my 7 a.m. wake up time) and I feel good but still tired and dragging at some point in my day. Clearly a sign I need more sleep! Who knew? This week, I (and possibly Michael) will be trying for 8 whole, glorious hours of uninterrupted sleep each and every night. If I can do this, I will feel like superwoman and will be able to really increase my workouts and pretty much revolutionize my world! I like the info in this update from Arianna Huffington about what happened to her after finally getting those 8 hours of sleep each night.
I encourage anyone reading this to give this sleep challenge a try. Lawd knows we all need it!
Today is Blog Action Day where thousands of bloggers all over the world write about today’s very important topic – Climate Change. I’ve been a big proponent over the years of people being aware of what I’ve always called “Earth Changes” which now is referred to as “Climate Change” but they are both one and the same thing. It’s one of the major reasons I relocated – I had so many dreams telling me I have to move it was hard to ignore them after a while.
I am a professional psychic/medium (as well as other specialties) and I have been guided to learn to live my life in as self-sustainable a way as possible and have lived this way in both a rural setting and a suburban setting for the past 15 years. I’ve been an astral traveling dreamer at night my whole life and I can remember back in the‘80s having the start of my earth change dreams where I could fully recall them and wondered why I was being shown this and what was it all about? It was like fitting pieces of a puzzle together and I started tracking strange weather info in the news. Then in the early ‘90s I came across different Native American prophecies that foretold of a great time of change and upheaval starting to happen on our planet: “Turtle Island will pull into her shell” is what the Hopi have said regarding the USA (Turtle Island). They are the keepers of this ancient and very accurate prophecy. According to them, we have passed “The point of no return.”
One of my recurring dreams I’ve had over the years in my astral travels regarding earth changes is being in New York City (I am a native NYer) and looking out of an office building window down at the street below and seeing the buses driving through water that came up to their headlights. I say to a co-worker, “Why is there so much water in the streets?” and she tells me that there has been water rising around here for some time now. She obviously has gotten used to it and says, “Let’s go check out this new club after work” and I think she’s crazy and feel that we must evacuate ASAP. I get this feeling of urgency and my co-workers think I’m the strange one and go on with their life and adapting to the rising waters around them.
There have been times over the past 15 years where friends will email me photos of massive flooding going on in NY, tunnels being closed, cars submerged (my own mother’s car went under water in a parking lot from flood water). But then it all eventually returns to normal and people seem to forget until the next time. I keep watching the events escalate – a tornado touching down in Brooklyn? I don’t recall any tornadoes in the metro NY area when I was growing up!
I had a very vivid astral travel dream just a few months ago of being in Antarctica and watching a major ice shelf collapse and then all of this water came rushing out with such force. I got so upset over this and kept saying in the dream, “No more sea level rising” and heard back, “This is the way it’s going to be, due to the actions humans are taking.” Two days later, I heard on the news about a huge ice shelf collapsing in Antarctica which scientists said was unexpected and they were surprised about it.
My son, now 5.5 years old, has had some pretty interesting earth change dreams of his own already – he has given us pretty detailed descriptions (in 5 year old terms/descriptions) of being inside a volcano and it was going to erupt. He had a series of these dreams every night for about a week then they stopped. Less than a week later, there were a few volcanoes that erupted in the “Ring of Fire” around the Pacific Ocean.
From what I’ve been seeing both psychically and tracking in the news all of these years is that climate change is REAL and events are happening at an alarmingly fast pace – faster than the scientists have even predicted and mostly due to the choices and actions we humans have taken. I think by now it’s pretty impossible to ignore the increase in frequency of major traumatic climate change events like earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, rains/flooding/mudslides, extreme droughts/fires. It doesn’t mean the end of the world is coming but it does mean MAJOR CHANGE for millions, maybe billions of people many of whom will have to start over from scratch in a new location or, will cycle off the planet during a major weather event.
So what can we do? We all have to learn new skills (and yes, some you won’t like but learn them anyway), learn to adapt mentally and physically and find locations you resonate with and feel in your gut are safe areas to live/raise your family and to build community in. We all have to work together. And respect the Earth, herself. She’s going through a lot!
We who are aware of what’s going on must step up and DO SOMETHING to help both our fellow humans AND the animals that are so affected by climate change. There is still some time left to change the laws to end the abusive practices corporations are doing to the planet. Let your voices be heard by your governments! Let’s hope all countries join together to make radical shifts now to law and policy so there will be some semblance of a nice planet left for our kids to live on. As I see it, if we don’t make the changes NOW, our children are going to have to deal with MUCH worse!
I’ve written about the Kid Safe Chemicals Act before. It’s just wrong that there is not any real regulation of the chemical industry and how those unsafe chemicals make their way into our bodies. What do you think those chemicals do to our children – and how about our babies in utero? They come into the world pre-polluted! That’s enough to make you say – disgusting!
Well there is something we all can do about it – Sign the Declaration! At least we have a fighting chance now that the new administration is in place and making changes to help the people. This would be one huge step towards improving everyone’s health – especially our children.
The Kid Safe Chemicals Act (KSCA) would put the burden of proof on chemical makers to document the safety of their products before they go on the market.
It just seems illogical that this has not been happening all along. Please take 2 seconds to click on the link and sign your name!
Well this should be good news to women everywhere – both gardening and yard work helps to boost a man’s sexual performance according to a study by the Medical University of Vienna. Hear that men? Now not only can you be helping both the planet and your wallet by growing some tasty organic veggies in your backyard, you will be improving your sex life and making your partner very happy at the same time. I say that’s a win-win for everyone!
As little as 30 minutes a week tending the garden or allotment can dramatically improve men’s performance in bed, according to the experts in the field.
Digging, weeding or mowing the lawn for half an hour reduced men’s risk of failing to live up to expectations in bed by more than a third, the survey found.
I find this news very promising for the women who may have to deal with issues in either category. Your man too lazy to want to garden? Tell him it will improve his sexual performance in bed. Ditto for men who have any kind of performance issues in the bedroom.
Not only does the act of gardening benefit a man’s health in so many ways, it also benefits their partner who would like free, local, organic produce out their back door and more intimacy in the boudoir. Whoever said that women were less interested in sex than men clearly does not really know much about women!
And for the record, both my husband and I like to garden….a lot ; ) And the phallic tomato pictured above grew in our garden last summer!
All of the talks I went to were extremely interesting and informative. The best one though was by the keynote speaker, L. Hunter Lovins. She is an internationally recognized expert on climate change, green development, energy efficiency, resource use, land management and “natural capitalism.” She was named Time magazine’s “Hero for the Planet” in the year 2000. She has also founded a school named Presidio School of Management where you can receive your MBA in Sustainable Management. One job that these graduates are excelling in is helping large companies to convert their corporations to become more environmentally friendly and find ways for them to save money at the same time. Others go on to work for the EPA or even start their own eco-friendly businesses.
During her presentation, she spoke to us about why it’s important to build a sustainable community. For one thing, it’s prosperous for all of the residents and you will feel secure and self-reliant. All residents will have assured supplies of water, energy, food and basic services. Being sustainable means fully valuing and enhancing all forms of capital: financial, manufactured, human and natural.
One idea that was mentioned by several speakers including Ms. Lovins was the “Triple Bottom Line – profit, protection and people.” This refers to what are the financial, environmental and social impacts of an organization, business or community? This is what we must think about when we are in the planning stages.
She talked a bit about businesses and mentioned that businesses also need to remember the most important thing which is to always start with efficiency. There will always be surprises in business but as companies are now realizing, protecting the climate is profitable! This is evidenced by Walmart who has very large sustainability goals in place and they are actively taking steps to become more green and sustainable to help their company’s bottom line as well as the planet. Since announcing this, their stock prices have gone up even in a bear market economy. I know this seems crazy that Walmart is committed to this but since they are leading the way, other large corporations will surely be following soon enough.
Ms. Lovins is also a part of the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP) which is a large group of experts working together to help find solutions to reversing the damages caused by climate change, improve our economy and our national security. A plan for our 44th president’s first 100 days in office regarding climate change has been produced and since we have now had the election a few weeks ago, we know our new president is on board with halting climate change and creating economic growth by moving forward with new technologies and greenhouse gas regulations that will help save our planet and grow our economy at the same time. A win-win for all once again.
Here is the background on what PCAP is trying to accomplish:
One of the most important challenges facing the 44th President – arguably the most important challenge – will be to quickly and effectively address the three interrelated problems of climate change, energy stability and national security.
Leading climate experts estimate that the international community has 10 years to make dramatic changes in greenhouse gas emissions if we wish to avoid the worst consequences of global warming. A similar need for action in the next decade is being created by the growing international competition for oil, the approaching peak in world petroleum production and America’s increasing dependence on oil from unstable or hostile regions. Left unaddressed, these problems may create unprecedented economic and environmental hardships and increasing global tensions.
By the time the 44th President takes office, the window of opportunity to prevent these crises will be one-third gone. The people of the United States, as well as other nations, will be looking for an early indication of whether the President intends to lead the world’s largest energy-consuming and greenhouse-gas emitting nation on a responsible course of action.
To help the President launch effective Federal leadership on these issues, the University of Colorado and several partner organizations are engaging the nation’s science, policy, business and civic leaders to produce a Presidential Climate Action Plan (PCAP).
The plan will contain a broad menu of policy and program recommendations for the President, rather than advocating a particular policy. It will be announced early in 2008. During 2007-2008, the project will operate a web site that offers resource documents and background information on climate policy to assist the Presidential candidates in forming their climate-action commitments.
In summary, this whole event was very inspiring for me to attend. I am so happy that the ideals and beliefs about how my husband and I like to live our lives for the past 14 years are becoming more mainstream and widely accepted. I am really feeling optimistic even in this bad economic downturn that our country will be implementing these new environmental changes that will be beneficial for everyone on many levels. The time has come and the changes have to be permanent. We are still currently before the “point of no return” and we have to make these changes so we can keep living on this beautiful planet. Don’t you agree?
Last week I read the article, “Farmer In Chief” written by Michael Pollan. It is probably the most thorough article about our current food and agricultural system here in the U.S. and what we need to do to shift the agriculture policy to make it better. Pollan calls it his “Sun-Food Agenda” and it is written as an open letter to the next president. In my opinion, this article is simply amazing. And even better, Obama read it and even quoted from it before he was elected:
There is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy. I was just reading an article in the New York Times by Michael Pollan about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it’s creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they’re contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs. That’s just one sector of the economy. You think about the same thing is true on transportation. The same thing is true on how we construct our buildings. The same is true across the board.
Willie Nelson, the musician and the president of Farm Aid, wrote a letter to Obama offering him every resource that Farm Aid has available to assist him in creating a new farm and food policy that supports a sustainable family farm system of agriculture.
From the letter:
There is broad agreement that our farm and food system needs to be drastically reworked. The good news is that the work of building an alternative to the industrial food system is well underway and Farm Aid is proud to have been a leader in this work, something we call the Good Food Movement. The Good Food Movement has grown and thrived almost entirely without the support of the federal government. However, now is the right moment for the leadership of our country to take a role in this important movement. In fact the future of our economy, our environment and our health demand it.
I am waiting to see how this all will unfold once Obama takes office. The way things are run now is clearly not working for anyone on any level anymore. This has to and will change at the policy level and thankfully we have a very aware president-elect that will make sure at least some major agricultural changes take place at that level. It’s already been shifting at the grassroots level as you can tell by the huge surge in consumers buying organic produce, pasture raised meats, attending farmer’s markets, joining CSA’s and the rising awareness of people wanting to take charge of their health starting with nutrition and knowing where their food comes from.
I especially love that he wants to make school food come more from local farmers and be of higher nutritional quality. This is going to really help the low income families who rely on this food program sometimes as their kids’ only source of calories for the day.
Bring Farms to Schools: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will support providing locally grown, healthy foods to students as a part of the school meals program. This will both reduce childhood obesity and grow vibrant rural economies, supporting community-based food systems and strengthening family farms. They will support funding for farm-to-school projects for food, labor, equipment, and staff training. They also will allow schools to give priority to local sources when ordering food. Currently the USDA prohibits schools from requesting local products during the bidding process. Finally, they will expand commodity support to include the school breakfast program as well as the school lunch program.
The farm to school program is already being initiated in one school district in my county right now and I’m hoping my school district will be next to embrace this program.
This is just so great, I’m completely excited that finally I can be happy my government has listened to We The People and will act upon what is best for it’s citizens and not the corporate greed system that has been destroying us and our planet for so long.
I can’t tell you all how happy I am that we as a nation can now move positively in a Greener direction with the election of Obama as President. He has said that one of his first initiatives after stabilizing the economic whirlwind that’s going on right now is to get alternative, sustainable technology going here so we can end our dependence on foreign oil, create millions of jobs that cannot be moved overseas and lower our carbon footprint which will basically save the planet at the same time.
Since I write (and live) a mostly green, sustainable and health blog, this is one of the chief things that I have wanted to see for many years. Having been involved in this lifestyle since the mid 1990’s, I can’t tell you the heartbreak I have had over watching Bush not give a damn over the state of our planet and therefore the people and animals who have to consume the water, air and frankenfood allowed to be so polluted and denatured under his administration. I am OVERJOYED and FILLED WITH HOPE that we can actually survive now. For a while I was not too sure. I think Obama will make wise choices for each position in his administration and even Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s name is on the short list for heading up the EPA which I personally think is an excellent choice considering all the years he’s worked so hard for the environment through the NRDC. (I highly recommend you read this letter from the president of the NRDC through that link).
It gives me goosebumps to see good people that work for the greater good of all to be put in positions of power to ensure we clean up the gigantic toxic mess Bush/Cheney let happen and make our planet safer and cleaner and greener again for our children to grow up in. We do need more regulation in certain areas and many people have been working hard to get certain legislation passed such as the Kid Safe Chemicals Act, the Safe Toys Act, getting the US to sign the Kyoto Protocol, etc. This is necessary and needed to keep us and our children safe. Regulation is not a bad thing especially when corporations are getting away with murder, basically to make a profit. We are not lab rats, we are fellow citizens of the world who are being polluted on so many levels that millions of us are sick and dying, again good for the corporate drug companies to make a buck, not good for the people suffering and dying from toxic overload that causes cancer and other diseases. Obama is aware of these issues, has young children and wants to focus more on preventative medicine and good health and wants to clean this up. That is something stellar to see in a leader because preventative medicine is inexpensive and does not make much money for the drug companies.
And to be clear, I see him as a human, dealing in the world of duality just like the rest of us humans and I don’t hold him up to be a savior or anything like that. I am just so happy that a person of high intelligence, thought and caring for many different issues and is progressive and wants to do things differently and more wisely than the old and decaying ways that no longer work for us as a collective. Those ways just simply won’t work anymore. It won’t be easy, we are going into an economic depression and have to deal with getting through that chaos even with Obama as president.
When I heard “44th President” I was excited because the number 44 is a “power number” according to numerology (which is the metaphysical science of the vibration of numbers developed by Pythagoras in the sixth century BC) and the definition of the number 44 is “universal builder with insight; can institute and assist world-wide reform for the good of mankind; can manifest his postulates.” I feel Obama’s energy and soul wisdom is the right person to embody the power of this title. He is fair and balanced and listens to the advice of others who may not agree with him. That is a mark of a great leader. I know he is fulfilling his karma and will be a real unifier of humanity who is ushering in a new way for us all. And lawd knows, the entire planet is desperate for the US to go in a new direction!
Have you seen the footage of the viewing parties across the globe on our election night and the massive celebrations taking place in other countries once Obama was elected? I think that really says something and we Americans need to take note of that. The most powerful nation on earth has finally chosen a leader the people of the world feel represents the greater good for all. And I hope and pray that we all can move forward working together for this very purpose because we don’t have that much time left to keep destroying the planet without more and more dire consequences being thrust upon us all.
Here is a Ted Video of Ann Cooper of the Berkeley, CA school system giving a talk about what she’s done and how she has changed the way kids eat school lunches. She teaches cooking classes for kids, shows them where food comes from, and has basically overhauled everything including a pie chart of what should be on a child’s plate for meals, etc. Her talk is very informative and passionate and I loved it. I feel just like she does about this subject and was so happy to see someone here in America making a difference like this and also supporting the local farmers, educating everyone on child health through good nutrition, the dangers of chemicals in our food especially on a child’s body, growing gardens at school, etc. A great video and clearly a great woman.
I just returned home from a much needed week long break we took to see my friends and family in NY for a friend’s wedding. It was awesome. There truly is nothing like hanging out with old friends and in NY, I have many that I keep in touch with. As much as I love living in CO, it always makes me so sad to leave everyone at the end of my trip. Each day I woke up and I didn’t care about what was going on in the world and instead I saw many different people and we just laughed so much, ate great ethnic (vegan) food, played with all of the kids (my son just loved that) and just got to hang out and be me. My son got to see and understand more about his mama on this trip now that he’s a bit older and he got to play with so many cousins and friend’s children and spent quality time with my aunt who babysat him while we were at the wedding.
One of my friends who was the maid of honor gave a beautiful toast and at one point said, look around the room, see how many people (the bride) is still close with for more than 25 years. (I have been friends with the bride for 28 years already). She said this is because of the kind of character she has and the quality person that she is. I agree. The old, enduring relationships are with the kind of people that are there for you, know all about you and how you have evolved as a person over time and love you regardless of it all. This is such a rare and beautiful thing because as it is with any relationship, it takes some work and effort to maintain.
Our last day there we drove into NYC and took my son to see the new dinosaur exhibit at the natural history museum, went to Central Park then met my uncle for dinner at a restaurant I’ve been dying to go to – Pure Food and Wine. It is a gourmet raw vegan restaurant and the food was amazing – we all liked it and I have new ideas of things to try to re-create here at home. The highlight of the whole meal had to be the dessert – 3 different raw vegan ice creams. Oh.My.God. They do have a $2,000 ice cream machine in the kitchen which makes it come out like gelato. One was an ice cream cone with chocolate ice cream dipped in a hardened shell of raw chocolate, the other was a pistachio ice cream sandwich dipped in the same raw chocolate shell and the third one we tried was a chai tea ice cream pop covered in the raw chocolate shell. All so good and the ice cream sandwich tasted like marzipan which is one of my favorite desserts so I had to ask what the ingredients were and the waiter told me that it was really the Italian almond flour in the cookie part that gave it that flavor. I am so trying this at home soon! My son, Mr. Picky ate a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dinner. I figured at least it’s all healthy ingredients since he wouldn’t eat anything else on the menu. He loved it and loved the other ice creams for dessert, too. Now I need to get a good ice cream maker since I only have the REI roll it on the floor kind of ice cream maker you use for camping. Not the same.
The other great thing for me about being in NY is that it’s a very liberal state and that makes me feel right at home. CO is a “purple” state so there is more opportunity to encounter others with a much more conservative viewpoint on every single issue out there – even ones like my current congresswoman voted for that hinder support for low income children in my own town which makes me so sad for them and disgusted by her (she’s done many other actions I don’t like, either). Good thing she’s up for re-election and hopefully she won’t be back to do more damage.
On our plane ride home, there was a current issue of Rolling Stone Magazine left behind so I was psyched to read it since I don’t normally read that mag and of course, there is a big political article in it (many, many details) about “The Real John McCain.” I’ve read a lot about both candidates over the past few months and just like I pick my friends, I want to choose my candidate on the content of their character and their integrity. This article goes into detail with facts from his biography, interviews he’s given to the press over the years as well as interviews the journalist did with his fellow POW’s and other military personnel – even info about the Reagan’s viewpoint on his actions which was surprising to me. I highly recommend you check out this article as it’s the best one I’ve read about him, bar none: http://www.rollingstone.com
I really hope we can rebuild our country and focus again on the people of this country and taking care of us all so we can become a strong nation again. We are looking and acting pretty wounded right now out in the world especially because of what’s happened to our economy. We who live here are lucky to live here, it is a great nation and I am fully aware of that from having lived abroad in other countries.
I am hoping we all will elect the president that understands that and wants to help rebuild us as strong people first. I want my son to have opportunities for good health care and education that won’t cost us an arm and a leg to provide it for him and better laws to get rid of putting special interest groups first over what is safe for him (and us) to ingest and breathe in. If we had that, we wouldn’t have to go look up in the Skin Deep website about products we use on our bodies to see if the unregulated chemicals in the products we buy are safe for us or not or have a need for the Safe Toys Act or the noxious toxins that are allowed to be put into our air and dumped into our water supply, or injected into our food supply – even through the factory farm animals most people eat everyday, etc. We need an overhaul of so many systems to help us become a strong and healthy nation and the tides are finally turning where enough people are aware of and care about these issues now.
As Suze Orman always says, “People first, then money, then things.” I really hope we get the opportunity to finally put all Americans first instead of continuously catering to the greed of the corporations and the wealthiest 1% of Americans. If we don’t focus on the people, I think we will see lots more devastation and death with increasing global warming catastrophies doing a number on this planet as well as a bankrupt financial system and extreme amounts of homelessness and poverty all over America and the world, too since we’d be in the midst of a global depression. Yeah, happy thoughts, I know. I hope all of my American readers will take all of this into consideration when choosing who to vote for. There really is only one logical choice who will put the people first and if you don’t believe me, be sure to read the above article.
I had every intention of writing about poverty in third world countries for this year’s Blog Action Day’s theme of Poverty and about the pain and devastation those millions of people have to deal with every single day. Since our financial system is now collapsing here in America, I think it would be more appropriate for me to address the coming onslaught of many middle class families falling into real poverty over these next few years. I feel many don’t even realize yet how badly they will be affected.
The way many Americans have been living – paycheck to paycheck with credit cards as a backup in total denial that they are spending way more than they bring in so they can have their toys and keep up with the Jones’. When your entire way of living is cut off at the knees and you have not really saved any money in an emergency fund or put away any bulk food or gathered any extra blankets or winter coats to stay warm because heat is now too expensive for your home and everything else one needs to do to prepare for that “just in case” scenario well, these people are in for a rude awakening.
Every single industry will be affected in some way and will feel the effects- even the ones who say they are “recession proof.” A large economic slowdown the likes of which we have never had to deal with is upon us and will get worse before it gets better. What we are now entering is way more than just a recession. I heard it quoted this week as “We are entering a time that will rival the great depression if not surpass it.” That is one serious statement and it was made by a CEO of a Fortune 100 company.
When you lose your job and have to figure out how you will be able to keep your home with no income and no savings, the fact is many won’t be able to and will become homeless. Financial advisers tell you to save up 6-8 months worth of monthly expenses in a savings account just in case this scenario happens. Shelters in America have already seen a large rise in homelessness and people in shock and dismay that they can’t find another job. Many more job layoffs are predicted to happen in many industries over this next year and what happens then? We have millions more falling into poverty right here in America.
It is good to have a network of people you and your family know well in case you lose your job and your home and become truly homeless. Think about who you know, friend or family member that would let you and your kids stay with them until you can find some kind of work again. Families doing this will become more common over the next few years until our economy stabilizes and we can start to turn ourselves around.
Working together with others in a bad economy can help to save at least one home by moving in together and pooling all of your resources and money so you all have someplace warm to sleep at night and some food to eat. Our world is changing and we all will have to rely on each other to rebuild it. Growing food with others will be necessary as will preserving whatever food you can. It’s amazing how much food can be grown on a very small section of land in your backyard.
Children will be really affected by all of this, hopefully attending public school will help give them some sense of normalcy and a rhythm to their day. They would also qualify for the free lunch programs public schools have to feed the low income children breakfast and lunch which may even be the only food they get to eat on those days.
The sooner we can get jobs going here in the green technology and alternative energy sector to save on cost of fuel and create work for the masses, the better. I just hope our next president realizes this and works to get it going right away.
These will be trying times for everyone but for those of us who are lucky enough to keep a job throughout this upheaval, we need to remember to give back – donate food to the food banks, clothes, blankets, winter jackets to the charities that help the homeless, extra money donated on your utilities bill that goes to their program that helps low income families keep the heat and electric on while they still have a home to live in, invite a family that you know is suffering hardship over for a dinner and give them a care package to take with them, etc.
While we of the middle and upper-middle class are not used to living at the poverty level, millions all over the world still have it much worse than we do. We are not being shot at, raped and terrorized like villagers in Somalia, we have homeless shelters and soup kitchens to help us out even a little bit unlike the starving masses in Haiti who resort to eating dirt cookies and we have food stamps especially for women with infants and young children. There are even some programs like Medicare and others where if you are destitute, you can receive free medical care – especially for your children. So our poverty does not rival extreme poverty in third world countries but the emotional pain and physical toll on the body will still be felt just the same.
I hope we can all learn a big lesson from this – don’t live above your means. You can be happy with less and there is a real art and satisfaction to living simply on the Earth in harmony with nature. I hope you all will get to keep your jobs and homes and will help your local community out in whatever way you can.
