How to Create a New Money Blueprint
“Money is like a sixth sense. You can’t make use of the other five without it.” - Somerset Maugham
Just as the color of our eyes is controlled by our DNA, so is our attitude and acceptance of money. From a very early age, our money blueprint is developed. Usually it is our parents who create this blueprint for us.
If we see our parents begrudge those who have money, then we grow up with those same attitudes. If our parents are careless with their money; then we have a good chance of not being good savers or investors, too. In short, we inherit the idea of how we feel about money.
Unfortunately most of us have probably grown up around people who have convinced us that we don’t deserve to be wealthy. A common attitude, or myth, we have been taught is people with money, and don’t have to experience living life on a paycheck-to-paycheck basis, are lacking in strong, moral character. Read more
Kryptonite of Our Souls: 5 Ways to Cope with Loneliness
“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” - Mother Teresa
Over the holidays, Mary Beth, Emily and I watched the movie Hancock with Will Smith. It is one of those movies that can be watched and processed on so many different levels.
Emily, our ten-year-old daughter, was entertained by the action scenes and was delighted when Hancock taught a young bully a very important lesson about respect. Mary Beth and I were intrigued by the complexity of Will Smith’s character and the underlying messages the movie brought to light.
One theme contained in the movie centered on the impact loneliness can have in our lives. Yes, Hancock was a superhero, but the one thing that brought him to his knees was the loneliness in his life.
Without divulging any important parts of the plot, the movie advertises a homeless superhero that is prone to take to the bottle too often. Hancock shows no compassion for the victims he saves because he has very little compassion for himself. All of his strength and power is no match for the crippling effects his loneliness is costing him.
As I was watched the movie, I felt a tinge of hopelessness swell inside of me. If a person of unbelievable strength cannot cope with loneliness, how can we mortals expect to do so? The answers may lie in the choices we make. Read more
Living with the Complicated Glass
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. - Reinhold Niebuhr
How to live 100 days without alcohol?
I don’t know the answer. I only made it to day 53.
The 53rd day was last Wednesday, June 25, the day after my father-in-law’s funeral. Mary Beth and I went to her father’s beach house to spend the day with her brothers and sisters before heading back to Kansas.
We wanted to use this day to begin healing. The beach has a distinct calmness about it. The repetitive sound of the waves brushing up on the shore before retreating back into the ocean is a reminder there is still some measure of certainty and predictability left in this world. While we can never be sure what each day may hold for us, we can be comforted by certain rules of Nature which will always remain true. It just happens another rule of Nature’s is one day we will all return to the sea. So, we gathered to comfort each other and to be comforted.
Late in the afternoon, and completely exhausted by the emotional and physically toil the last five days had on my mind, body and spirit, I craved a beer. A cooler was brought down a few hours earlier that further exacerbated my temptation. Read more
