Friday night dinner didn't turn out to be as dramatic (or traumatic) as I had expected, especially hearing that Nadine was going to the Keg for dinner! A good friend phoned and after we talked for three hours (on her dime) I was able to skip dinner and go straight to hot milk, a semi-hardcooked egg and bed. I watched tv for an hour, a program I wouldn't normally have bothered with but 10 channels doesn't leave a lot of choices, and I watched it live which in itself is more of a penalty for me that watching something I don't particularly enjoy. Bed early with a book with actual pages, not being read to me on an iPad.
My conversation with Linda was entertaining as always and distracting from my circumstance, but mostly it constantly reminded me of how we have lived. True to the goal of this poverty challenge, we frequently talked about what we have, the years we haven't had so much, and being aware of those who chronically have less. She is very committed to service in her community so it was like preaching to the choir. She confirmed what another BC friend had told me about an MLA who lived on the streets in Vancouver for a month. It was life-changing for him but the big payoff was that he was in a position to actually make changes. We may not be able to re-write legislation but hopefully we WILL make changes in our approach to those less fortunate and that we'll contribute more to alleviating the local problems.
An email from my newest good friend in Winnipeg confirmed my thought that most of us have struggled at some point in our lives and some have been fortunate to 'get out'. This quote from Liz: "I love your projects. This one sounds very interesting and well worth to spread poverty awareness. I was there a few years ago with my ex-husband and two little kids. Even though I made it out, I never forget the rough times of no food in the house. I buy baby food and formula for the food bank regularly. We give to all charities around the city all the time. It feels so good to help out. I even involve my participants when dropping off items."
I've always been aware of a number of our friends who do help in areas of need and while my goal in this project was to awaken us ALL to the needs around us, it's been so rewarding to hear of the many friends who go quietly about their giving, blessing those who don't necessarily even ask for help. I stated in my bio that I'm constantly amazed when I hear about another little pocket group of citizens who make one cause their personal project and do wonderful things for the fortunate recipients of their kindness. There are a lot of those small groups and I'd love to see a flow-chart of the pattern of giving that exists under the radar. Collectively, we ARE doing a lot to help and if we all develop some commitment to the issue, we 'can do yet greater things than these.'
Breakfast was a happier event for me, warming up the bland porridge (what a humble word, 'porridge'...elicits a picture of Tiny Tim in the London slums) or what I normally would choose to think of as oatmeal, cooked cereal. What I really wanted was Red River Cereal but at $7/box that was not gonna fly this week. So I heated up my "porridge" in milk sweetened with icing sugar, covered it with applesauce and sliced bananas. I've never been keen on fruit mixed in cereal but it wasn't bad and did dress up the base dish nicely. With a glass of OJ, this turned out to be a pretty decent and filling breakfast. One plus for me may be that I come through the other side of this project with a better eating plan!
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