Sunday, November 6, 2011

Dreaming of spreading the love

Ever wonder what you would do with $24 million dollars? I have. My Mom and I would make lists of things we would do. We'd let our inner Mother Teresa out and let her fly.

Things like:
- All expense trip for the entire family to some fabulous location
- Take $1 million and make a list of the top 100 people in your life and give them each $10k. Invite them each out to lunch and ask them what they would do if suddenly they had ten thousand dollars.  Then watch the look on their face when they got handed the money.  Pure joy!
- Take 51% off the top and create an investment portfolio. Take the money earned and make charitable donations to needy organizations/people, like:
   o  Dig water wells in Africa
   o  Feed hungry children in the USA
   o  Put some students through med school in exchange for providing ten years of medical care to a rural area
   o  Finance some Cadence missionaries
   o  Finance legislation that allows the US to process our own recyclable materials instead of shipping our trash to Japan/China
   o  Create a scholarship for religious education
   o  Pay the mortgage of some deserving families or put a roof on their house
   o  Make micro loans to women around the world
   o  Build a few small homes for the elderly that offer free quality care
   o  Give away American flags to those who desire them and will fly them
   o  Create a lunch bag program for street people
   o  Fund some health clinics
   o  Tithe to a church
   o  Give a hundred people a thousand dollars each with the caveat that they must then gift $200 to someone else they do not know and watch the energy flow

- Buy a house for my sister, brother, niece, nephews, and son.
- Build a cabin with wind/solar power off the grid.
- Put a few of my son's friends through college.

What an incredible opportunity it would be to "pay it forward".

What would you do with $24 million? Let your love of people shine!

Friday, November 4, 2011

What's wrong with me?

I'm fifty-six and overweight. Can't change my age but I sure can do something about my weight.

YET....

I do nothing. Why?

I have a dream for a cabin and no job. Unwilling to change my dream and not getting a job. Why?

My immediate answer is "It should be easier than this." I get motivated and eat healthy. I get motivated and apply for jobs. Consistent for a short period of time and then I quit. Why?

Is it because I just want it all handed to me?

Immediate weight loss without any effort. Without illness or the loss of a limb. Weight loss that gets me to a hot looking 162 lbs. Weight loss that has me move effortlessly. That allows me to ride a bike or snow shoe with my husband. Wear fabulous funky Renee inspired clothes. Boots! Why isn't my desire for these things enough to make it happen? What's missing in me?

A cabin built miraculously by someone else as a gift for me? What's missing that despite dreaming about owning a cabin since I was seventeen isn't enough to push me to get a job?  A cabin I've designed, drawn, redrawn a million times. I own the land! I've walked it and placed the cabin. Dreamt about it. Torn magazine pictures out of features I'd like in the cabin fill a scrapbook. Why isn't my desire for my dream enough to make it happen? Don't I really desire it?

Tears threaten to drop. I read a letter from my Mom to me when I was in my early twenties. "Stop living in this dream world of yours!" Why?

I'm not afraid of hard work. I've done plenty of hard work. Nothing stopped me from building my deck. Nothing stopped me from getting my first SUV. Nothing stopped me from being a Mom.

Why am I stopped now?