DSTSS - does charity begin at home?

59. Adopt a child through the mail

You know, i promised myself that i would complete this project of blogging my way through 'don't sweat the small stuff' and from the outset i said would take 2 years if i did a chapter a week. that was going to be way too long, but here i am EIGHTEEN months later and i now have more chapters left then there is months of the year.

i guess what's on my side now is time - a lot has changed since i did my last DSTSS in june so i do feel able to fit this in and knock the book over.

this title of this chapter is - Adopt a child through the mail - fuck i wish someone would adopt me through the mail......

just kidding. i am very fortunate and would not take for granted any of the things i have or have achieved even through the hardships i have faced.

so it's quite a dilemma isn't it, wanting to help others who have nothing - no food, no water, no place to live, no family - especially children.  i have experienced first hand what it's like to see someone who had every opportunity in front of them while being supported financially and emotionally just to make choices that eventually lead to their own destitution.  and yet there are others who are destitute through no fault of their own and i have seen that too, when i was in india for a period of time.

i remember a few years back when dave and i had hit the absolute financial bottom that we always shared what we had and i'd often pay a coffee forward for someone, or give people any spare coins i may have had - it was never much, but it was good for the soul knowing that maybe i/we could make a difference.

now that i have relocated, i see and walk past a number of people who are on the streets - more so than i did previously - i don't their story's so i can't make a judgement, but i know that it's not possible for me to help everyone out there, but i may be able to make a small difference to someone, by sharing what i can in the moment i enter their space.

i know this chapter was to be about financially supporting a child via a payment program, and that's a great thing as well and there are lots of great humanitarian programs assisting with this, so i give where i can and often it's to what i see right in front of me.

note to self: remember that it's really easy to give money to the person on the street doing an entertaining performance, but it's incredibly hard to give money to the person on the street who lives there.  consider a split - half each - both benefit, sadly though it's the person who makes us feel that most uncomfortable that probably needs it most.