Thursday, January 31, 2013

Do you ever feel like....

.....it's never *enough*?  It's never enough money, time, patience, stuff, anything.  It's never enough because we've been taught from the very beginning to never be satisfied with what we have.  From the days of infancy where new parents purchase a million gadgets from baby-mart-imporium-a-million that their babies do not need, to the childhoods of bought emotions and feel better toys.  The ever present commercials targeted at our 5 year olds that they *need* this new toy, or that better cereal, spiraling out of control to our teenagers and young adults telling them they need to have the next, greatest, slightly slimmer, slightly larger, slightly better thing in order to be a full fledged adult.  By the time we figure out that we've been totally had, we are adults that are overburdened with debt, over connected, emotionally desensitized to the real world, and completely addicted to our lifestyles.  How do we then do a radical life change to become more aware, more self sufficient, more in tune with what's really happening?  How do we begin to care about the things we already have and the people we love when our whole lives have been an effort of brainwashing by multi-billion dollar corporations?  How do we fight against that?? 

For me, it's like a diet (and lets face it, I'm not too great at diets!).  It takes determined effort, every single day to say "I have enough, I am enough, I need nothing more to validate myself".  Then on top of that I have to say "My children have enough, my children are enough, my children need nothing more than my love to validate them".  I am determined to make those choices easier for my girls to make by giving them a foundation of appreciation now.  Everyone is fighting against me, whether they mean to or not.  From the overabundance of Christmas gifts, to the lollipops at the corner store, my children are the constant recipients of "stuff" and "things" and it's driving me crazy.  MANY days I fail.  MANY days I am the reason that my children are overcompensated with stuff.  MANY days I make the same mistakes over and over and over again.  But so long as every day I try, I aim higher, I wrestle with everything I've been taught about consumption, and give my children (and myself) the lessons necessary to make better choices about materialism and how it affects our emotions, then I am succeeding.  It's hard.  IT'S REALLY HARD.  Can you help me?  Can I help you?  Can we do this together?

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