Aspects of Being

Gabrielle Perreault

I heard a comedian once say, “You’re NEVER too poor not to afford good toilet paper!” - and any of you who ‘know’ what he’s talking about, including myself, smile and wince at the same time. Ah, but I’ve adopted the notion, in fact I’m convinced, that if you’ve never been poor, you simply haven’t lived! That is, if you’ve never had to do without the legion things that are so taken for granted, if you’ve never been forced to stake out your real priorities and necessities, if you’ve never lived by your wits and the fine art of “Robbing Peter to pay Paul”, your imagination is still a latent thing - unexplored and unacknowledged. I say, pay due homage to the “Monetarily Challenged”!

This is of course a tongue-in-cheek statement, because making due, being poor, for all the myriad reasons it occurs, doesn’t feel like something to be proud of in our bountiful society. Nor does it appear to be much of a blessing. It takes an incredible amount of time and energy, with absolute minimal resources but an inquiring mind and a steel will to survive. There are equal amounts of despair and hope when at the end of a given day, there’s yet one more dollar in your pocket. And there’s a dilemma about the glass being ‘half full’ or ‘half empty’ when one is weary yet grateful to have made it through, but wondering where and when the next small oasis will be found. The trials and rewards of such circumstances have yet to be acknowledged by our society. What we often tend to perceive as Blight is the unsung plight of the Human Spirit - noble as it is common. 

I find myself thinking about it all the more at this time of year, as the shameless deluge of Christmas Advertising heads into absolute full frenzy (…and by the by, have you ever heard of a “Ramadan Blow-Out”? A Kwanzaa Sale? A Pre-Chanukah Liquidation Bonanza??!) This coming ‘Time of Giving’ is now measured in personal expenditures that equal the Gross Domestic Product of some small countries! Oh yes, we complain anon about the ‘pressure’, and the crowds…the parking…how the latest ‘hot item’ was sold out, not to mention the bills that come afterwards - but where oh where do the all the supposed aspects of “Christianity” fit in? If we choose to participate in this veritable falderal, supposedly as Christians, surely we can re-write the rules - or at the very least, take a much-needed inventory of the reasons we participate, as well as how and where we actually execute our “Magnanimous Giving”.

Surely OUR wits, our resources, and our imaginations can lend themselves to re-discovering “The Reason for The Season”, though it may indeed mean something subtly different to each person. So if you’ve ever heard the sound of laughter in a Soup Kitchen or a Homeless Shelter, if you’ve ever witnessed children happily playing in an Abused Women’s Refuge, if you’ve ever survived “1 ply” times or Kraft Dinner Days in your own life, you my friends, have a worthy secret that sorely needs to be shared…
 
 

Blessings Revisited…
 
 

Once upon a time,
I learned to sing, because I couldn’t afford to buy music.
I learned to cook, because I couldn’t afford to go to restaurants.
I learned to sew, because I couldn’t buy new clothes.
I learned to write my thoughts when I couldn’t afford a psychiatrist.
I learned to make beautiful gifts with Love while I couldn’t pay for expensive presents.
I learned to laugh because there was so much sadness in my life.
I learned to think because no one had the answers I needed.
I learned to welcome the Sunrise, for there was so much darkness around me…
And I learned to love even The Night, for in darkness, all light is ever the more precious.
I learned to lend my brother a hand, for I had two that were practiced…
 

Some would say that I have had a hard life. 
Why then do I feel so blessed and content…