I work hard to earn my money

One reason not to give money: we work hard for the stuff!

An important part of this issue is to understand "Social Capital" which is, that by virtue of being born in a place that has good institutions and infrastructure, we are able to make a lot more money. (possibly accounting for at least 90% of our earnings).

So if you live in a third world country, it doesn't really matter if you are smart and hard working. It is pretty much impossible to get ahead if your whole day is spent walking to clean water, or if there is no electricity in your community, or if the government and court system is corrupt, if there are no banks to provide loans, no good schools etc. etc.

Warren Buffet said: If you stick me down in the middle of Bangladesh or Peru, you'll find out how much this talent is going to produce in the wrong kind of soil.

-The Life you can save by Peter Singer

The reason we make the money we do, has less to do with how smart or hard we work and more to do with where we were born.

How much does America give in foreign aid?

Let's get to the nitty gritty and talk about mon-nay! (I am such a nerd, I can't help it). I am not going to make this a big drawn out report because that would be arduous for me and boring for others so let me just say that people in the US have been found to have really skewed ideas of how much money individuals and the government give as foreign aid and not in the good way (This means we think we give loads more than we really do).

So starting with private philanthropy only 7 cents is given for foreign aid out of every $100 income earned.

The United States Government gives 18 cents of every $100 earned for foreign aid. It is also important to note that that money isn't going to those necessarily in greatest need but mostly to places in which we are politically motivated.

So this blog left A LOT unsaid, contributions for education, funding for research to help improve the lives of third world citizens, the complications of foreign goverments and such but it is a starting point of knowing how much we give as a nation of people and as taxpayers to our government.

This information was from the book "The Life You Can Save" by Peter Singer.

Generated by Love- the experiment

Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. -Martin Luther King Jr.

I love the term "generated by love." It reminds me of the energizer bunny and then I am imagining myself with a little battery in my back labeled love. (let me stop there). What I am trying to convey is how happy we would be if everything we did was motivated by love. (Be sure to throw in some thoughtfulness and respect for others and then we would be living a life with a lot less regrets). So I am thinking about doing an experiment tomorrow and live that day motivated by love. I think I will invite a friend to do the same and then report back. Honestly it sounds a little mentally exhausting but we shall see.

Finding balance

Something I have been struggling with is finding the balance. There is so much need out there and my personal resources of time and money are very small. How does one find the balance between how much to give and how much to keep. I don't know the answer to this one. I don't think it is wrong to be able to enjoy eating out with my family or spending money on a girl's night out but at the same time it feels wrong to know that there are so many many people suffering because of poverty while I have so much. I have finally decided that something I am comfortable with is to give a little more money than is comfortable and to spend a little more time than is convenient. Since I truly believe that serving others IS a joyful duty, I think the joy we feel from sacrificing for some one else will ease the burden of the sacrifice until it just becomes a way of life for us. Then it will be time to readjust and find again what creates a little discomfort and inconvenience. So I guess I am hoping that it will continue to cycle with: sacrifice-joy-contentment-sacrifice-joy-contentment

until I find that just right spot. Still thinking on this one. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

The yard sale!!!

Whew, that ended up being loads more work than I anticipated and required sooo much more help from others than I had thought it would. In the end it went off great! Friends, family, and neighbors were so kind and helpful. The money earned was $368.66 (I found some odd change in boxes of donations) and with a couple of items that didn't sell, I hope to break the $400 dollar mark!!! I will be taking the unsold kitchen items to the women's shelter for battered women and children, the unsold toys were given to a man who stopped by (he does a toy drive in November and is starting to grow out his beard to be Santa when he gives them out), and the rest was picked up by His House Ministries that helps alcoholic and homeless men.



Here is where I would like to add a special thanks to Johnson's mini storage for providing a free unit for us to use, Lexington High School for letting us use their parking lot, my parents for all the babysitting, My dad, my husband, and my brother-in-law for all their muscles (and Brian, thanks for the use of your truck), Nat, for making gobs of cookies to sell, designing the handouts, being my sound board, listening to me obsess, and providing helpful advice. Thank you Heather for staying in the wee hours of the morning to help label prices and keep me awake while I bit off more than I could chew (two days in a row) , and for hanging out at the tail end of the sale when I was just about to poop out. Thanks Kenneth (Heather's hubby) for giving up time with your wife. Katy and Aaron, thanks for helping with set up when you also had little Reuben with you and for making me laugh (always very helpful). Thank you Carol for your support, your comments made me feel encouraged. Thanks mom for being proud of me. Thank you everyone who donated items and bought items. And Jeff, thank you, thank you, thank you for not even blinking an eye as the house began to fill up with donations, and undone housework, for being patient as I had to keep leaving to do so many things to pull this off, for all you did as you were sick!!! And especially for your encouraging words.

Choosing

This post is about choosing not to be offended/ choosing not to judge others. I was thinking about this in two parts.

The first for the recipient: what a wonderful way to serve each other than to not judge and to give each other the benefit of the doubt. It would feel so wonderful if you knew that when you did something really stupid, people would just smile and think, "must be a bad day", or "that was really messed up but I bet that wasn't her intent." ( And not tell others about it)! We all make mistakes, or even deliberately do something that is dumb but I think most of the time, most people are trying to do the best they can, or at least somewhere in the vicinity of good.

The second half is for ourselves. I have a friend who said : you can get into a lot of trouble trying to help good people. As we try to do good and then someone reacts in an unkind way, it is easy to feel offended and hurt or angry. I love this quote by Elder David A. Bednar:

When we believe or say we have been offended, we usually mean we feel insulted, mistreated, snubbed, or disrespected. And certainly clumsy, embarrassing, unprincipled, and mean-spirited things do occur in our interactions with other people that would allow us to take offense. However, it ultimately is impossible for another person to offend you or to offend me. Indeed, believing that another person offended us is fundamentally false. To be offended is a choice we make; it is not a condition inflicted or imposed upon us by someone or something else.

I know this is true. When I worked as a nurse (pediatric ICU), there were the rare times when parents could be rather ugly to me. Even though I had done nothing wrong, and was in fact, doing my best to help them and their child, I wasn't offended. Why? I knew that they were stressed, and scared, and a myriad of other horrible emotions parents feel when their kids are really sick or hurt so I didn't take it personally.

So now, when someone is offensive, I am going to try my darnedest to give them a break by thinking: I just don't know the whole situation, I don't know what they are going through right now, or they are just ignorant (not in a condescending way) about the issue. (Seriously, that was the one I had to go to other day. I never thought I would find someone with beef against helping orphans). This most likely does nothing for them, but it makes a world of difference for me. I don't have to carry the burden of feeling unhappy about how I was treated. Very freeing.

"Everyone was born to smile"

I will be mentioning different charities in this blog (naturally) because I believe that when we find something that is close to our hearts it is not a burden to sacrifice money to help. I will strive to post good charities that use the funds wisely, and promote self-sufficiency in those it serves (Except in the case of natural disasters or similar circumstances where food and shelter are needed immediately). I think that is one of the most important aspects of a charity: to empower, rather than create dependancy. So don't feel guilty about all the charities that you don't help, rather find the one that you will love to help. This brings me to Dr. W. Geoff Williams and the International Children's Surgical Foundation. http://icsfoundation.org/

Dr. Williams and his team perform cleft palate surgeries in developing countries. What makes this foundation extra special is that he not only spends more time in an area (this enables them to spend more time on surgeries, treat more people, and provide better follow-up care), he also trains local doctors to do the cleft-palate repair in their country. (Three doctors trained by him have opened clinics and now treat others for free). The foundation has also hired specialists to treat other deformities in poor children (orthopaedics, ear-nose-throat, maxillofacial, burns and neurosurgery). There are more differences listed at their web page so check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/v/OtpxPVSt75g

It's all about where you're looking.

**Attention, Attention! Today's blog comes to you from Tauni, Morgan's sister.**

Against my better judgement, I agreed to view a video that was getting a lot of attention on the internet. It left me feeling sick at heart for the persons involved. Were they not loved as children? Did they have people in their life that told them they were beautiful, special, valued?

For days I felt my spirit burdened with these thoughts and then made worse by news stories of corruption, television shows promoting poor values, articles about the depravity of mankind in my own city. I had found myself thinking the world to be a bad place, hopeless.

I lay on my couch in a state of depression, and then came my salvation. A commercial about a man who founded Tom's Shoes: "TOMS Shoes was founded on a simple premise: With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One. Using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good is what we're all about." I encourage you to check out the site @ TomsShoes.com.

It's easy to get trapped in the spot where I found myself when we live in a time when the front page always goes to the tradgedy and the top story is for scandals. DON'T GET TRAPPED IN THAT SPOT! Tom's Shoe's is not alone. There are thousands of foundations for helping the needy. Thousands upon thousands of people dedicating their time, money, hearts and souls to making better what they can. People striving to be good hearted people.

There's Morgan, a busy mom of two, going around her neighborhood to collect items for her sale to benefit 'Mothers Without Borders'. There's the man who holds the door open for the person behind him. There's the stranger on the street who smiles at all the people she passes. There's you and me!

Goodwill. It can be found everywhere, and it is.

Thanks for this opportunity to share my experiance and hope!
Tauni Peck

Happy news

Ah, a happy picture. This was sent with the MWB yard sale info and I think it is so sweet. So, I am very excited to have a place reserved for the sale. It will be Sept. 12, 8-12pm at the Lexington High School parking lot.

Next I need to keep stocking up items and find a storage facility that will allow me to store stuff there free of charge. : ) Which brings me to my husband. Our house is not huge and we pretty much fill it up, so now that I am bringing all this misc. stuff in, it is kind of spilling into our living space. My husband has said nary a word about it. One of those quiet (literally) acts of service that make life sweeter.

Three cups of Tea

A friend of mine had really recommended this book and I kept looking for it at the library but it was never available and my PIN isn't working to reserve books so months later I just gave up and bought it. I rarely buy books because I prefer the free library but I have no regrets on this purchase. It is about a man who was nursed back to health by people in a poor Pakistan village after failing to climb K2. He then promises to return and build a school for their children. It becomes his life's work and during the next decade he has helped build 55 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

I haven't even finished it yet but it is so inspiring and beautiful so give me a couple more days and it will be available for borrowing.

Mothers without Borders yard sale

Alright, we really needed a picture here. One of my favorite charities is called Mothers without Borders (I have never donated to it although it has been on my mind a lot). It helps orphaned and at risk children which is something that always touches my heart. You can go to their website http://www.motherswithoutborders.org/ and find out more. There is also a big link for those of us short on funds and it states that Saturday September 12, 2009 is their Mothers without Borders Yard Sale day! So I need everyone who lives around me to write this date on your calendars and then start poking around your house for things to donate. (If you don't live near me, you can host your own yard sale). I really want to dream big on this one which is really out of my comfort zone but I am excited. Okay. I have spent way too much time on the blog for tonight so I am going to go rummage through my closets for things to sell.

I am ready to make a difference

I looked for a while for a photo of children in need. Found some but just couldn't bring myself to post them. Partly because I want this to be a hopeful and uplifting site but also I think because it is heartwrenching to look at and I am ashamed that I have not done more to help others in the past. I was really excited when I first thought about this site but I haven't wanted to make it known until I had gotten more of a start, figured more things out, etc. etc. but I am ready to start now.

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
-Edmund Burke

I want this blog to cover the whole spectrum of helping others. From the small and free acts of service we can do daily to what to look for in a good charity before donating money. I think the biggest step is the first one. To recognize that it truly is our duty to serve and help others, and that much joy can be found in doing so.

So personally, I am beginning by going out of my comfort zone (as you will see in the next blog), daily doing small acts of service, and giving a little more financial support than I have in the past. Go act. : )

The beginning

I don't know what I am doing, I just know that I really really want to be better at using my life and resources to serve and help others. I am so saddened by the suffering of so many people in this world and I want to do more. I am also trying to become aware of small things I can do to help in the much smaller sphere of my daily life. I hope that others will join in with their ideas and knowledge and that we will be able to support and educate each other as we find joy in our duty to serve others.