you know those days where you just feel like you're playing catch-up from the minute your feet hit the floor? the baby woke up four times, screaming from those stubborn teeth. the three year old is whining about the toast, she wants more butter. your husband accidentally overslept and he needs you to iron his shirt and you forgot to switch the laundry so his pants aren't dry.
the thing is, i have these days frequently. like, more often than not. maybe it's our season of life with two young girls, but maybe it's just me? either way, i'm tired. and sometimes i'm really ungrateful and my heart can get ugly. i want to pay someone to clean my house, but we can't afford it. we have too much house and it costs too much money. i'm overworked and underpaid, and while i'm at it? out of shape and my ragged hair hasn't been trimmed in months.
sometimes my emotions can just spiral out of control until i'm reeling about something that had nothing to do with anything in the first place. if it's not one thing it's another. i can always find something to be ungrateful for.
but then something like hurricane sandy hits, and suddenly my perspective jolts back to reality. it ravages the east coast and destroys whatever's in its path. and disappears leaving us with the mess. the media covers it for a few days, absolutely non-stop, and then they pick up and pack up leaving everyone behind. just like that the rest of the world moves on with their lives, forgetting anything ever happened. we're junkies that way, tragedies are like fads for some reason. we move on to the next one as soon as it leaps across our screen.
hurricane sandy moved me. all those sleepless nights with the teething baby? they don't seem so hard. the laundry and the dishes and the ironing? at least my home is intact, warm. at least my people are healthy and safe.
did you read about the woman who lost both of her boys in the raging current as it ripped them from her arms? absolutely devastating. it takes my breath away to read it again. my children are sitting next to me as i write, playing and giggling. i have so much to be thankful for.
i read about the families who were displaced and still living in temporary shelters as winter sets in to the northeast. food, water, warmth. those are their most basic needs. things that i take for granted every single minute of my life, and these are regular old folks just like you and me. everything was taken from them and they were powerless to stop it.
my heart has been heavy for these victims. and here's the thing: sometimes i can't know about an injustice or a suffering and just move on with my life, doing nothing. God will impress certain tragedies more than others. sure, i'm just one girl. but you know what? i also have a little print shop. and maybe i can't drop everything and give up a month of my life on the ground in the midst of the suffering. but what i do have? a little stream of income that i can steward in a way that makes a tiny dent. because lots of little dents make a really big dent, don't you agree? it's not glamorous or mind-blowing, it's just simple math. if lots of us do a little bit, big things can happen and communities can rebuild and people can feel loved and cared for.
"If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one."
- Mother Teresa
so a few of my friends and i got together and said, "hey. let's donate some of our sales for november and december for hurricane sandy relief". and that's what we're doing. you can read more about each shop-owner here. so far i've been able to donate just over $100 to this cause, and i'll be donating 25% of all shop proceeds for the rest of december.
[click to get to my shop]
thanks for your time, friends. and thanks Lindsy for having me!
