Tag Archives: consumerism

Day 2227: People Before Worldly Wealth

People before money and things – that’s my message to the world.

It’s 9 : 30 AM on day 2227 of my journey towards independence and I managed to have breakfast, pray, read 2 Peter 1:16, learn one new thing – Onerous [on·er·ous] adj. Involving heavy obligations. Involving a burdensome amount of effort and difficulty. “The court’s stipulations were onerous.”– and work on my 25 Smiles Campaign –raised $8 011.04 only $4 488.96 more to raise to reach my second goal of raising $12 500 for Smile Train before Jan 10 2017 (SO SO SO GRATEFUL to everyone who has supported this campaign so far ).

Today I’d like to say to our world people before money and things I feel like in this world consumed by consumerism some of us have lost (or are losing) our humanity.

Day 1082: Insecurities feed consumerism

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Insecurities feed consumerism – that’s what I keep learning.

It’s 12 : 10 PM on day 1082 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to pray, brush my teeth, read 1 Samuel 16, publish my Disability of the Day feature, feed myself Bran Flakes for breakfast, tweet and Facebook about my campaign – Alison Austin over at Thinking of Starting a Blog donated $20 yesterday (thanks again Alison) now I only need to raise $80 in the next 46 days to reach goal – practice sitting up straight to strengthen my core muscles and take off my dirty turtleneck and t-shirt and put on a clean t-shirt and hoodie – it took me two hours to do but like everything else in my life I eventually got it done Walt Disney once said the difference between winning and losing is most often, not quitting I have found that to be so true in my life.

Yesterday watching TV I realized insecurities feed consumerism the media constantly keeps telling us that we are not good enough so we buy things but that doesn’t help so we buy more things it’s just a never-ending cycle I wonder what would happen if we all decided we were okay without the expensive make-up or fancy car I think we would be more fulfilled. Are your insecurities causing you to buy things you don’t need?

Day 223

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The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them. – Frank A. Clark

It’s 10: 05 PM on day 223 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Appam – A bread made of rice batter – and beef curry for breakfast and spend Easter lunch and dinner with my family (see pictures below).

Today lying on a mattress in my aunt’s TV room I heard that my cousin’s nine-year-old daughter was getting her father’s ‘old’ BlackBerry and in that moment I couldn’t help feeling as though my cousin and her husband were missing a trick with regards to their parenting because in the twenty years that I’ve been alive I’ve never owned an ordinary cellphone let alone a BlackBerry and not because I didn’t want one either but because I wanted to wait until I could pay for it myself. Are you spoiling your children by giving them everything they want on a silver platter?

My geandma and I

My grandma sleeping (I love this picture it's so cute)

My cousin's son – Shaun

My cousin’s daughter – Shannon

My sister – Neethu

Day 188

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The best things in life aren’t things. – Art Buchwald

It’s 10: 30 PM on day 188 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Batura – deep fried bread – for breakfast, join Triberr – the concept of Triberr is really simple everybody in your tribe automatically retweets your blog posts for you and you do the same for them – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, watch TV, feed myself butternut and curry for dinner and tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck 🙁

Two weeks ago on Saturday I woke up to hear that my father and uncle had made a joint offer to buy another house – they already owed one together – and I remember thinking we already have four houses let’s leave some for other people and I said as much to my mother who’s response was God will provide houses for the other people and in that moment I finally understood that the reason I felt like an alien in my own family was because their primary aim in life was to consume and own while mine was to gather and give away. Have you become so obsessed with the accumulation of things that you’ve forgotten what it means to truly live?

Day 148

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Unless you choose to do great things with it, it makes no difference how much you are rewarded, or how much power you have. – Oprah Winfrey

It’s 8: 45 PM on day 148 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – two donations were made to my campaign – the first one was a $20 donation from Andrea of the Brite2Briter Kids Foundation –and the second one was a $16.15 donation from Abdullah – I am SO grateful to both of them 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, exercise for 10 minutes while watching TV, feed myself grilled chicken for dinner and continue reading The Last True Cowboy by Kathleen Eagle – I read for a few hours before it occurred to me that my mom had to turn off the lights and go to bed – there’s just something about reading that I LOVE so much when I read it’s almost like I forget the people who stare at me my mall, my father who prefers that I go to the other room when people come to visit, my mother who somehow manages to minimize everything I do and my sister who I could never quite live up to.

Today lying on my bed trying to concentrate on the words I was reading I couldn’t help thinking I wish I was Justin Bieber for a day and in that moment I was so overwhelmed with frustration because most celebrities – Oprah and Alyssa Milano excluded – write a cheque and think that that is all there is to giving but having donated money to various different charities myself I can tell you that donating money pales in comparison to giving someone else an opportunity to give and showing them that they can live a fulfilled life without being caught up in the vicious cycle of consumerism. Are you doing great things with your power? 🙂