Our Relationships with Money

If people get their attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area of their lives.

-Billy Graham

It makes me sad to see so often the ways that we don't try to foster healthy relationships with money--neither as a society nor as individuals.  So many of us have a negative relationship with money, never having "enough" of it, considering it something terribly powerful in its absence in our lives.  Others of us use it to try to impress other people or to buy things to make up for ethical, moral, or emotional shortcomings.  People blame it for their problems, and they use it to show off to others.  When we look at the concept of money objectively, though, we see that it's nothing more than a method of exchange--we exchange our work doing or creating things for the money that people give us, and then we exchange the money for goods or services that other people offer.  It's very much like electronics have become, though--a tool that should serve us has become a god that controls us, when we allow it to do so.

Just the other day I went to a ticket-selling website to look at the prices that are being charged for tickets to Bruce Springsteen concerts that will happen next year.  I found two decent seats next to each other that were being sold for over $4600 each--and they weren't the most expensive ones.

Why would anyone spend that much money for a two- or three-hour concert?  For most of us, this makes no sense at all.  Personally, when I think of all the good that I could do with that amount of money, rather than put it into the pockets of a singer and a ticket agency, it makes me kind of sad to think that the money is going for something so fleeting, so unenduring.  This is especially true today, when so many people are having a hard time just meeting basic needs like paying for rent or food or diapers for their babies.

As members of our society, though, we've been conditioned since we were able to comprehend messages to spend our money, to buy things that we don't really need, to "contribute" to the cycle of capitalism (which has become a bastardized version of itself in our country, favoring the very wealthy and those who are already affluent, and penalizing most of those who aren't wealthy).  We've been told that buying that more expensive bike helps our economy, even though the bike was built in another country.  We've been told that we "deserve" the most expensive things for ourselves, that we should always buy the $4.00 cup of coffee instead of the $1.00 cup of coffee, even when there's no difference at all between the quality of the two.  We need to buy the more expensive things because of the ways that other people will look at us and admire us when they see us wearing a $400 dress instead of a $75 dress.  Yes, sometimes the higher price is an indication of higher quality and it makes sense to pay extra, but that's actually rarely the case.

So what are we supposed to do?  Of course, there is no easy answer to this question, but there are some definite rules that do seem to come close to being laws of dealing with money.  For example, money is meant to circulate--when we have it, one of our goals should be to spend it.  When we do this, we help our entire community to thrive.  When you eat at the local restaurant, you're helping to support a local business and you're helping the owners to pay their bills and send their kids to college and take vacations and prepare themselves for retirement.  That tip you gave to the guy who helped you with your luggage helps him to pay his rent or his electric bill or his student loan payment.  When we hide our money away, we're contributing little to our own communities.

And this is one of the hard parts--our society has made it a norm for chain stores and restaurants to come into our communities.  Yes, they do provide some employment for local people, but most of the money that we spend there leaves our communities rather quickly, so that money benefits our community very little.  But we still need to buy things, right?  Of course we do--we need to eat and wear clothes, and our homes and cars need upkeep.  One of the hardest decisions we can make, then, is to spend ten dollars more for the same product or service at a local store rather than at a chain store, for then our contribution can make a bigger difference when the people who now have our money then spend it locally, also.

The main point, though, is that money is meant to be shared, and it's meant to be circulated.  And when we do circulate it, we need to be discerning about where and how we spend it.  I don't go to restaurants, for example, that end up costing over $50 a meal for each person.  I don't have enough money for that kind of price not to be an issue for me.  I don't buy the $6 bag of cookies when the $2 bag tastes just as good--but if the latter bag tastes crappy and I really like the cookies, then sometimes I will splurge for the good package, and I'll never buy the crappy ones just because they're cheap.  Decisions like this tend to define our relationship with money, and it's important that we take those decisions seriously.

One of the biggest problems that I witness is the idea that money exists just for me to fulfill my every wish.  That's not why we have money, and if we think it is, we're bound to spend our lives with "money problems," which often could be better called "decision problems."  If you're having problems paying your rent or car payment, then perhaps now isn't the time for that $400 concert ticket.  Another problem is not understanding the value of money, which we see constantly when people pay $5 for a bottle of water that they could just as easily get from the tap.  Advertisers have convinced these people that the water really is worth that amount of money, when the simple truth is that it's not--the water in that bottle is no better than the water in a $1 bottle, or even, as in most communities, water from a tap.

How do you and money get along?  Are you okay sharing it when you see situations in which it really should be shared?  Do you respect its value, and try to make sure that the exchanges you make for it make sense?  Your relationship with your money is yours alone, and when you can develop a balanced relationship that's based on common sense and a desire to help others, then you can be pretty sure that your relationship is going to be a healthy one that will benefit you and those you love.

Let money be a positive part of your life, and it will do so.  Share it, and more will come back to you.  The avenues of supply are much more common and easy to access than most of us think, and they'll open up when we develop that strong relationship.

More thoughts and ideas on money.

The Strength of the Gentle

I grew up thinking that strength meant being strong, showing strength in physical and emotional ways.  It meant being unyielding, and it always implied pushing beyond limits and pushing others to push themselves beyond their personal limits.  It was an ideal that everyone was supposed to live up to:  always being strong and never giving in.

Gentleness, on the other hand, was seen as weakness in many cases.  A gentle response to a problem was lame and ineffective.  A gentle approach to a problem made no sense, because we surely can't "overcome" problems with a gentle approach.

But what if most problems don't need to be overcome?  What if, instead, they need to be understood and worked through?  What if gentleness is an approach that works more effectively in the long run, long past the time that the short-term fix that's based on strength or force ceases to be effective any more?  Many people never will find out the effectiveness of gentleness because they'll always be convinced that they have to be strong in order to get things done.

Gentleness means recognizing that the world around us is fragile, especially
other people. It is recognizing our own capacity to do harm and choosing 
to be tender, soft-spoken, soft-hearted, and careful. When we are gentle
we touch the world in ways that protect and preserve it.  Being gentle
doesn't mean being weak; gentleness can be firm, even powerful.
-unattributed, Wisdom Commons

I was fortunate as a teacher to discover that the vast majority of my students responded much, much better to my gentleness than they did to my strength.  They had enough "strong" teachers--they didn't need any more criticism, harshness, inflexibility, or punishment.  The vast majority of them were doing the best they could, and they really appreciated it when I treated them gently rather than harshly.

Sometimes we feel pressure to be "in control" of things, and many of our so-called "teachers" in life--parents, relatives, bosses, and anyone else who has influence over us--try to convince us that being "in control" means that other people will bend to our will and act in ways we want them to.  The kid who's making noise will shut up; the subordinate at work will do what they're told; nobody will argue with you for any reason at all.

But the gentle approach isn't concerned with directly controlling situations.  Rather, the gentle person understands that often, things don't go right because someone doesn't understand something and needs to be taught, or someone is doing something wrong because they're hurting in an important and painful way, or a person doesn't respond well to suggestions or requests because they simply don't understand the importance of doing something in a certain way.  In these cases--and many others--gently helping the person involved is generally much more effective than trying to "force" things to happen our way.

Don't judge the gentle; their gentleness is stronger than your fears and angers.
Don't judge those who have lost their gentleness; you haven't lived their lives.
In all people, hope for the gentleness to return and see gentleness
for the beauty that it is.
-C. JoyBell C.

One of the most important things that we can do in our lives is to adopt gentleness as an approach to the rest of life.  When we're gentle, we allow others to be themselves rather than trying to force them to be something else.  When we're gentle, we become an ally to other people rather than an enemy.  When we're gentle, we show others their worth and value rather than trying to convince them that they're worthless if they don't do things our way.  When we're gentle, we help people to heal rather than opening up new wounds.

Yes, there are times when a strong and unyielding approach is more effective, even necessary.  But these times represent the exception rather than the rule.

A gentle approach to the world shows respect and allows others to keep their dignity.  It shows the world that we're not so insecure that we must dominate and control others.  It allows us to be an ally of life rather than a foe of life.  And for ourselves, it gives us peace of mind and peace of heart when we focus on a gentle understanding rather than stressful conflict.  Gentleness allows us to be in touch with our higher selves, that part of who we are that is able to share love, compassion, understanding, and hope with our fellow human beings.

In the broad picture of life, let me always be a person who chooses a gentle approach whenever I can.

Read more on gentleness here.

Common Sense: An Endangered Quality?

I truly love common sense, and I really like being with people who show it regularly.  Common sense is one of the most important traits that human beings can show, I believe, for it allows us to avoid stupid mistakes and to do things that make sense, no matter what the circumstances.

The problem seems to be that common sense often contradicts the wants and needs of other people who have influence over us.  It can even contradict our own wants and needs--if something goes wrong with our plumbing but I have no expertise or experience with plumbing, common sense tells us to hire someone who does.  But what if we don't have enough money to pay a plumber to come out and fix things?  Then we make the decision to do it ourselves even though we're not quite sure what we're doing, and that's a decision that can end up costing us tons more money if we make mistakes that need even more professional help.

I think that some people simply never have learned about common sense.  They're not able to look at a situation and figure out what the clearest, most common-sensical approach to dealing with it would be.  If a child is having a bad day and being a pain, we'll often see parents get upset with the kid, telling them to knock it off and to act better.  Common sense would tell us, though, that the most important thing that we can do is to find out what's wrong--especially if the behavior isn't normal for that person.

Everybody gets so much information all day long
that they lose their common sense.
-Gertrude Stein

It's rather easy to lose track of common sense in a world that pressures us to know everything, and to do everything quickly.  Sometimes we lose common sense because of our tendency to hurry--we ask ourselves, "What would be the quickest solution to this problem?" rather than "Which solution makes the most sense and has the best chance of being effective?"  Our desire to get things done and move on to the next thing can hurt us rather significantly if we're not careful, and it's hard to be careful if we're constantly focused on time.

We also lose our ability to practice common sense when we overthink.  We tend to overanalyze so much of what we do because we've been taught that logic and reason are the most important traits that we can exercise when dealing with any sort of problem.  After all, the human being has been gifted with reason, so we should use our reason in every situation, right?  But things don't always work out that way.  One of the most common stereotypes of men is that we tend not to stop and ask for directions, even though common sense tells us that someone who lives in the area would be a very good source of information if we're looking for something.  But we convince ourselves that we can "figure it out," and we keep looking even though we've never been in this particular place ourselves.  Of course, all locals aren't going to be able to give us effective directions, but the chances of them knowing how to get somewhere in their own town are much better than the chances of us being able to find something that we haven't found yet.

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without
education than to have education without common sense.
-Robert Green Ingersoll

Our tendency to rely upon technology has been a disaster for common sense.  Once my wife and I were driving with another couple, and the man driving was relying on his GPS device for directions.  We were very hungry, and we were looking for a place to eat.  As we passed through a town, we passed a sign that told us that the next junction was straight ahead, while the downtown area was to the right.  I fully expected him to take a right so that we could find a restaurant in the downtown area, but just then his device "spoke" to him and told him to go straight--it was telling him how to reach his destination by the shortest route possible.  Even though we were extremely hungry, he followed the spoken directions of his GPS, and we ended up bypassing the downtown area, and any chance we had of finding a restaurant in that town.

When the philosopher's argument becomes tedious, complicated,
and opaque, it is usually a sign that he or she is attempting to prove
as true to the intellect what is plainly false to common sense.
-Edward Abbey

We truly should not put logic and rational thought and information on the pedestals upon which so many of us put them.  Common sense, I believe, should always be our first goal when deciding upon any course of action.  Sometimes there will be other needs involved that will force us to not follow the most common-sensical approach and to look for longer-lasting solutions to problems, but in my experience, common sense will help us out far more often in far more many ways than anything else.  It can help us in our relationships, in our jobs, in our recreation, with our possessions and our homes and our dreams and goals and desires--but only if we make the effort to recognize it, and make the decision to follow it.

You'll find more thoughts and ideas on common sense here.

It Is What It Is: Accepting Life Fully

 "Acceptance" is one of those words that many of us seem to have problems with.  We like to "accept" on condition, which really isn't acceptance at all.  It's kind of like love in that way--we give our love freely to those who meet our standards or conditions, but we hold it back from people who don't.  We like to say that we accept life as it is, accept people as they are, accept situations as they are, but putting acceptance into practice is much, much different than truly accepting anything.

If I want to accept a person exactly as they are, then I can't impose conditions on that acceptance at all.  I can't say, "I like him, but I don't want to get together with him because of who he voted for."  We can't say, "You're a great person--once you learn some better manners, I'll be interested in seeing more of you."  We can't accept life as it is if we constantly look for the problems in life.  "I like living here, but it rains too much."  If we lose our jobs for some reason, the very first step that we have to make is too accept the loss, for nothing else can come of the situation until we do accept it.  Even if we were fired for unfair reasons, we can't fight the firing until we actually accept the fact that we have been fired.

Acceptance is a letting-go process.  You let go of your wishes
and demands that life can be different.  It's a conscious choice.
-Gary Emery

When we accept things as they are, we contribute greatly to our own peace of mind and peace of heart, for our acceptance frees us--we have no need or desire to have to make changes to anything.  It is what it is, and it's not our responsibility to improve or fix it.  And since most of our efforts to change things or people or situations to meet our personal criteria end up failing, anyway, that freedom is very welcome to us.  We're free to enjoy things as they are rather than spending our time wishing they were something else.

It's very important that we remind ourselves constantly that we weren't placed on this planet in order to change other things and people in order to make them what we think they should be.  We cannot learn from other people unless we accept them as they are.  We cannot be at peace with situations unless we accept them as they are.  We cannot reach our full potential until we accept ourselves as we are.

Acceptance of one's life has nothing to do with resignation; it does not
mean running away from the struggle.  On the contrary it means accepting
it as it comes. . . .  To accept is to say yes to life in its entirety.
-Paul Tournier

Of course, acceptance of the way things are doesn't necessarily imply approval.  I may accept someone's drug addiction because the person simply is a drug addict, and I can do nothing to help that person until I acknowledge and accept that fact.  When I accept that truth, I can act accordingly--this is not a person I would put in charge of anything important or have babysit my kids.  And it's not until that person accepts his or her own addiction that any true change can be made.

Accepting life doesn't ever mean that I refuse to try to change things for the better.  It means that I've done my best to see things as they are, and I'm willing to let life and other people do their own things without interference or help from me.  It's a freeing tendency, one that allows us to go on with making our lives the best they can be without feeling obligated to fix things for everyone else.  You are as you are, and that's just fine.  I may not want to spend much time with you because of the way you swear or the way you tend to insult other people, but that's fine.  I can tell you that straight out:  "I like you, but I try to avoid that type of talk because it offends me," and then let you choose whether or not it's worth it to you to tone down the language in order to spend more time with me.  I've made my choices based on accepting who you are, and now you have a chance to make your own choices.  I'm not trying to change you, but my acceptance of you shouldn't make me have to endure behaviors that make me feel awful.

I truly do believe that accepting life as it is and people as they are is one of the most important keys to living life fully.  When we do learn to accept life, accept others, and accept ourselves fully and unconditionally, we lose a lot of self-created stress that comes about because we think we need to control life and control people and control situations--and that's a thought that dooms us to failure and extra stress, because we weren't put here to control things--we're here to learn from things as they are, and to get to know them and love them as they are.

I accept life unconditionally.  Most people ask for happiness on condition.
Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition.
-Artur Rubinstein

Visit our pages on acceptance here!

Abundance Is All around Us--and Deep within Us

When you have too much month for your paycheck, then what
you need to do is realize that there is abundance all around you,
and focus on the abundance and not your lack and as night
follows day abundance will come to you.   ~Sidney Madwed


Sadly, we live in a society in which advertisers and marketers constantly do their best to convince us that we need certain things in order to be happy.  Day after day, we're bombarded with the basic message that we don't have enough, that we need more if our lives are going to be happy or meaningful.  And unfortunately, many people accept this message as fact--they think they can't be happy with what they have already and that they need many more things if they're going to live their lives fully.

The message that we don't have enough, though, is simply an attempt on the part of someone who makes something to get you to spend your money on their products.  That's it.  But we allow them to convince us that we actually need something when the truth is that although we may want it, it's not necessary to us.  The job of marketers and advertisers is to convince people that their lives aren't as full and rich as they could be--at least, not until we purchase their product.

What this approach does, though, is it blinds people to the abundance that they already have.  It doesn't allow them to appreciate the abundance in their lives because it creates discord in their minds, a discord that keeps them from seeing how good things are because they're focused on how good things could be--if only they had this car, this brand name, this clothing, this phone.  And we tend to make ourselves miserable until we actually do have those things, so when that miserable state of wanting is gone, we think that it's the thing that's made us feel better.  It's not, though--it's simply that we've stopped making ourselves miserable with our desire.

When I was young, our family didn't have much.  My father was in the military, so money wasn't something that we had tons of.  But in our house, wherever we lived, we had furniture for all of our rooms, we had dishware and silverware and pots and pans and bowls and food with which to use them, we had a car that got us places, and we even had "luxury" items such as a television set and a stereo.  And we had clothes to wear.  And that was about it.

And that was fine with all of us.  Of course, those were the days of far fewer television channels, so we weren't constantly bombarded with messages that we needed more, and we were able to be satisfied with what we had.  And because of that, we were able to see our lives as abundant--virtually all of our material needs were taken care of, so what else did we need?  Of course, there were other issues that we dealt with, but who doesn't?  We were able to deal with those issues, at least, from a position of material abundance--an abundance that I believe most people today would call lack.  We did go without some things, but none of those things were necessary for our survival or well-being.

These days, we have more than enough.  Virtually everything that we have is modest, but it's all been affordable and it all fills exactly the function that we got it for.  When I look around our house, I see only one thing that's newer than three years old, and I see many things that were bought on sale 10-15 years ago, but which we still really like.  I've bought many of my clothes in thrift stores because I don't care about brand names or even if something is completely new when I wear it--and some of my favorite clothes have come from those stores.  We actually have much more than what we need, but none of what we have has been bought because we couldn't get by without it.  We recognize that we're quite fortunate to have what we do, and we recognize that there's a great deal of abundance in our lives.  There are some things we would like to have, but that doesn't mean that our lives are incomplete or that we're unhappy if we don't have them.

"Count your blessings," they say, and they're on the right track.  Doing so will help us to understand how good we have things, and just how few other things we need.  When we focus on our blessings, on the abundance that we're experiencing, we're much less likely to focus on lack, and much less likely to feel that any sort of material objects can fill a perceived hole in our lives.

One trick that I've learned over the years is to wait at least 24 hours before I buy anything on impulse or something that costs more money than I usually would spend on something similar.  This strategy keeps me from buying something that I convince myself I need simply because I want it.  If I still think it's a good buy 24 hours later, then I'll get it--and it doesn't always have to be a strong need.  Sometimes I do buy things just because I want them, like a book or a cd or clothing.  Not everything has to fulfill a need.  But with a waiting period in place, I find that I buy fewer things on impulse that I really don't need, and that's important to me.

Another strategy that I use is to remind myself of the things that I own but almost never use--and I ask myself if this new thing would turn out to be one of those.  If I foresee myself using something very little, then I simply don't get it.  Let it sit on someone else's shelf for a while.

Abundance isn't all about what we have.  It's also about our perspective on what we have and how it fits into our lives.  Abundance is just as much a realization as it is a situation.  We have a lot in this world, and most of us could live the rest of our days with the same things that we have now, and be very happy doing so--if we were only to stop listening to all the messages that tell us that we need more, more, more.  Those messages are really saying, "We want more of your money, so spend it on our product."

It's up to us to be discerning and to make decisions that are conducive to an abundance lifestyle.


People individually and collectively are entitled to life in all abundance.
El Dorado, a country rich beyond all precedent in gold and jewels, lies at
every person's door.  Your bonanza lies under your feet.  Your luck is
already at hand.  All is within; nothing is without.

Herbert Seibert


More thoughts and ideas on abundance.

This Has Been Hard

It's kind of amazing to think that we've been in the throes of a pandemic for over a year now.  The last year and a half has seen the world turn topsy-turvy in so many ways, from giving us a subtle sense of dread at the beginning, when things were going so very badly in Italy and Spain, to the deep sense of loss and unsureness that we've felt as we've seen more than 500,000 people die in the United States alone--and 2,300,000 (and counting) worldwide.  So many mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, colleagues, neighbors simply aren't among us any more, though there was good reason to think that they would continue to bless us with their presence for years more.

No matter how we look at it, the past year has been extremely difficult for most of us.  People have lost family members, have lost jobs, have lost hope, have lost savings.  We've been under a constant barrage of pressure and rules, from social distancing to mask wearing to customer limits in stores and restaurants.  We've been worried about our loved ones, worried about our jobs, worried about getting sick ourselves and facing the debilitating effects of a brutal virus--up to and including death.

Sometimes, though, my mind tricks me into thinking that life is going on as normal.  This happens even though pretty much all the rules have changed.  I start to wonder why I feel so tired, and I start to think that I'm overreacting to certain things.  I start to think of how nice it would be to just pretend that there's really no pandemic, that I can stop wearing my mask and hang around with people like before, and that there's no need to worry about going to restaurants or stores or cafes or anywhere else that I feel like going.

But then I read the headlines from places other than where I live, and they're not good.  There are still people dying miserable and painful and frightening deaths that they didn't need to die; there are still people who are catching the disease and potentially facing years of painful and debilitating symptoms in their future.  And I know that this isn't over yet, even if it isn't nearly as severe a problem as it was a year ago.

I've run a few ultra-marathons, from 80 to 100 miles.  And believe me, I got tired long before I reached the finish line.  And after 90 miles of running, no one in the world would have faulted me for giving up and saying I was done (heck, the same can be said for after 40 miles, or after 60).  But I still had some distance left--I wasn't done with the experience.  If I wanted to finish what I started, I still had a couple of hours of running ahead of me, and I didn't want to give up.

It's an apt analogy, though the idea of giving up now on the safety measures against Covid-19 is far more drastic--giving up now could get me very sick, or even worse (in my eyes) cause me to get someone else sick, possibly even causing their death.  That's something that I'm not willing to risk.

Allow yourself to be tired.  Allow yourself to be exhausted, even.  Give yourself some very real treats to celebrate having come this far and having given up this much.  Don't berate yourself for feeling exhaustion--very few of us had any preparation at all for this type of experience.  But please try to stay the course, if not for your sake, then for the sakes of people whom you've never met, who one day may otherwise be exposed to the virus that you may end up carrying inadvertently if you're not careful with what you do and how you do it.

Take good care of yourself, and give yourself a break.  You're tired, too, and that's okay.  Allow yourself to be so.

What I Hope for This New Year

The calendar has renewed itself once more:  we have twelve months ahead of us that will belong to one measured unit of time, another year in our lives.  We're going to see winter, spring, summer, fall, and winter once more in the next year, and we're going to experience pain and joy and love and heartbreak and exciting times and boredom.  We're going to be happy and we'll be sad; we'll go through grief and joy, sickness and health.

But all these things happen every year.  Year after year, our lives follow a course that in many ways we have no control over, no way to change.  But because they are our lives, though, we do have opportunities to make sure that other things also happen, things over which we have a bit of control.

There are tons of things that I'd love to see happen in our next year.  No more wars, no more poverty, no more Covid, no more violence against the helpless--etc., etc., etc.  But it's important that I realize that these things are beyond the control of individuals, and if I want to focus on things that I may have a bit of control over, then I may find a bit of success in this year.

I also need to keep in mind that I need to focus on me when I think about what I want to see happen in this new year.  As soon as I start focusing on what I want other people to do, I'm trying to exert control over their lives--and I simply don't have any control at all over the lives of other human beings.  I'm setting myself up for tons of disappointment if my desire is to see change in others.

On the other hand, if I choose to do a certain sort of work to accomplish a goal with others, then I may want to hope for change in others.  Perhaps I hope to see more people wear masks in public places, and I start to volunteer for an organization that's trying to educate people on the importance of masks during the epidemic.  Then it would make complete sense for me to want to see change in others, wouldn't it?  As a teacher, I may want to see my students improve their writing--and in that case, it's my responsibility to try to bring about change in others.

It's also good to keep in mind that there's a difference between hoping for something and expecting something.  I can hope for more people to wear masks, but if I don't do anything to try to bring that to pass, then I shouldn't be disappointed if it doesn't happen.  And that's okay--I can still hope.  I can hope that the politicians in Washington do what's right, and I can hope that the people who work in our hospitals can get a bit of relief from the pandemic.  According to some schools of thought, the mere act of hoping is sending positive energy out into the world that may, indeed, contribute to the outcomes we hope for.  And hoping for positive outcomes is a way of sharing our positivity instead of being dragged down into the negativity that so many others show so often.

The trick is to detach ourselves from the need for the results that we desire, and allowing for the results that actually happen without letting them affect our spirit or our peace of mind.

All that said, here are some of the things that I hope for this year:

I hope that more people become willing to wear masks and practice social distancing, so that we may see the number of deaths actually decrease rather than grow, so that those who work in the medical field may get a bit of a break from the horrible situations in which they find themselves now.  And I hope that the vaccines work well and help us to slow the spread of the virus and keep more people from dying in such an awful way, before their time.

I hope that we have some clear logic and reason and compassion coming from Washington this year, and that more of our politicians become concerned about the people they represent rather than their own careers.

I hope that we see much more rain in areas that are dealing with drought conditions all over the world.

I hope that we see the end to the splitting up of families by our immigration services, and that the world over we see an end to the refugee camps that keep people from getting on with their lives for so long.

I hope that the businesses and services that have been affected so strongly by the measures put in place because of the pandemic are able to recover well and move into the future in very positive ways.

I hope that more people decide to spread love and compassion rather than anger, fear, and divisiveness.

I hope that in my life, I'm able to continue to grow and to learn, and that I'm able to share that growth and learning with others, passing it on as much as I can.

I hope that I do all that I can to stay healthy and to stay in good shape in order to stay that way.  The better I take care of my body, the less I'll be affected by many of the minor medical issues that are avoidable.

I hope that more people realize the harm that they do to others in their lives, and do all they can to stop doing so, whether that be spousal abuse, child abuse, or the lack of consideration for their neighbors or co-workers.

I hope that we all have plenty of good times, especially when we're able to get together safely in groups once more, and enjoy each other's company.

I hope that we don't lose the many important lessons that this pandemic has taught us--let's not just go back immediately to the "norm," especially if there are parts of that norm that are negative or harmful.

And I hope that you have a beautiful year in spite of the many challenges that we face.  Let's face those challenges and develop our courage and optimism in the face of a huge obstacle, so that they may stay strong always.

http://livinglifefully.com/hope.html