A little less than a year ago, I came across a profound statement.

Time is the most valuable currency.

This struck me as an epiphany because ever since I had been able to work, I, like most people, was mistaken in thinking that the only time that had value in it was when I was on the clock for a job.  I am so thankful that an enlightened soul shared this notion.  Life is so incredibly short.  It saddens me that people's lives are so filled with having to earn a living and not spending enough time enjoying whatever pleases them.  

There are many people who are unable to get work right now.  To them, I want to say.  When you spend your time doing something, whether it be at a job, or with a person, you invest your time.  I understand that life is stressful and bills need to be paid, but if you are still here, without risking sounding insensitive or condescending, I will dare to say it could be so much worse.  No amount of money can buy you more time.  For as long as you are still here, things will get better.  They might get worse before they get better, but if you're all the way down in the downy-dumps, as they say, there is nowhere else to go but up.  

When you are wealthy in the time department, enrich your life and the lives of those around you.  Teach yourself something new, even if you can't afford to go back to school, indulge yourself at the public library.  Teach yourself how to sew, paint, crochet, dance - Find Your Thing.  Then, do your thing.  Feed your soul.  Find your joy.  Time is of the essence, and every second wasted is a second you can never earn back.  Just because you are jobless, does not make you worthless.  Invest your time in yourself, invest your time wisely.  Unemployment leaves you free to do whatever you've always wanted to do, but couldn't, because you had to commit your time to work.  Your time to work will come again, and in your free moments, you can go back to doing that thing you didn't know you loved to do.

I remember a conversation I had with a good friend a couple of months ago.  She shall remain nameless, because I love her that much.  About two years ago, I came home a broken woman.  I literally got to hit the refresh button on my life and had the opportunity to reinvent myself, which is a privilege all people deserve to be able to go through, but only few take advantage of their opportunities to do so.  One way in which I dealt with the mess I had just gone through, was to inundate my mind and soul with uplifting nuggets of encouragement.  Quotes, if you will...that helped my days end brightly when they began shrouded in darkness.  One of the quotes I fervently cling to, even to this day, is

You are STRONGER than you FEEL,

You are SMARTER than you THINK,

and

You are more BEAUTIFUL than you'll ever SEE.

 Now, I'm not claiming no one had ever put this sentence together and said it before me.  It just happened to help me through some things, and it's one thing I constantly tell my friends who do not see themselves as the strong, intelligent, gorgeous creatures they really are.  The situation I was discussing with my friend did not apply to this statement, which she used in an attempt to console me.  I already knew this.  I whole-heartedly believe this.  I don't know why it irked me so that the girl couldn't seem to find her own words.  She can't even seem to find her own way.  She always has to have someone to cling to, no matter how dangerous that person is.  She reminds me of a younger, more naive version of myself.  

I had to step away from the situation and tell my ego to shut the fuck up.  Who am I to be irritated by a person who loves me and is just trying to help me through my struggle?  Ego has no place in love.

I have been working on squelching the effect my ego has on my relationships - both with myself, and with others.  It's one of the many things I struggle with.  I consciously shape my thoughts around humility, so as not to place myself neither above nor below others.  It's tough, I gotta tell you.  I have to be mindful of what thoughts I allow to pass through my brain.  Until recently, I was a egomaniac.  When I realized it gets in the way of things - important connections with people, I knew I had to get it in check.  I first began exercising my thought process by thinking of one good thing about every person I saw for one month.  I intentionally didn't apply it to only people I met, because I wanted to apply it to people I saw on television, in the movies, or ones I read about.  If there were no people to apply it to, I applied it to places, and yes, things.  That exercise changed my life.  I felt responsible for the energy I put out there.  For the first time in my life, I was able to take accountability for my thoughts.  We often forget...

Our thoughts are the foundation for our words and actions.

I have never, in my life, stopped myself so many times and asked, "Who the hell do you think you are?"  It has been a good thing.  My exercise in humility is one I refuse to stop repeating.  The world feels different.  I am also aware that people see only what I want them to see, but that those who know better will see through anything less than genuine.  

Try it for a month.  Find one good thing about any person and any thing you come across.  I know pessimists probably think this is a dumb experiment and is a waste of time, but let's not forget that you exist only in the world you have created for yourself.  If you think everything/everyone sucks, then they/it will.  If you believe that there is happiness and beauty around you, that's what will be around you.  I promise, this will make you see the world differently.

On January 12, 2010, the Earth both shook and stood still for millions of people.  Lives were lost.  Families were displaced.  After the devastating earthquake that ravaged Haiti, everyone knew that life there was never going to be the same.  To this day, rubble is still everywhere; there are more villages comprised of tents than there are neighborhoods of homes.  More than 2 million Haitians are still homeless.


Of the lives that were, lost, I heard insensitive comments, including, "That was God's way of controlling the population."  


...Are you kidding me?  


I realize that this world is full of ignorant and insensitive people.  Oafs such as the source of that awful comment, no longer surprise me.  


On March 11, I received a tweet alert from the Breaking News Organization regarding an earthquake in Japan.  I immediately sat up from my prior horizontal position in bed and began scouring the internet for updates using my smartphone.  I have family in the Philippines and wanted to know exactly which region of Japan was affected, and the likelihood of a tsunami reaching my family members.  When I found out the magnitude of the quake, I was speechless and felt helpless.  Thankful that my beloveds were in a safe zone, if there is one in this case, I was terrified for all who will be affected.  No doubt this is one of the most devastating natural disasters in recent history.  Besides Japan itself having been moved eight feet, the Earth's axis has also shifted.  

This map depicts the expected path of tsunami created by the shift in the Earth's tectonic plates that were the cause of the earthquake in Japan.  The Earth's lithosphere is made of tectonic plates (also known as lithospheric plates) that shift and collide erratically.  Here's is a geography lesson for those less informed regarding the younger face of the Earth that is better known as Pangaea.  

Rewind 250 million years...

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/images/evolution_pangaea-big.gif

Pangaea was a megacontinent, if you will(top depiction), comprised of all the continents we recognize today(second from top).  I am no expert on anything, least of all on geography, but the fact is that the Earth's land masses are constantly changing.  If all 7 billion of us had lived on the land mass that is known as Pangaea -  if the land masses never shifted apart, I do believe we would have been an extinct species long ago.  I highly doubt all the nations of people could function in such proximity.  My point is, I think too many of us lose sight of the fact that this planet we live on is, for a lack of better term, alive.  There is constant movement.  From floods to hurricanes, droughts to volcanic eruptions, we are at the mercy of the changes our environments undergo.  Many earthlings have forgotten that.  

We treat this planet the way we treat each other.  We stay for a few years, use/abuse/reuse the resources, and then...we bounce.  

I can't imagine that any group of people deserve a natural event of cataclysmic proportion.  As some like to state that this was an act of God, because people are evil, etc., etc.  People are always going to be people.  Good, bad, or indifferent, our history exists because neither a geological catastrophe, nor an astronomical one, has yet to wipe out the human race.  The Earth moves constantly.  It's just that sometimes, this is the result.  

http://raincoaster.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/japan-earthquake-tokyo-fires.png?w=535&h=357

It is just unfortunate that people happen to be in the midst of it.  I think we forget that on any land form resting on a tectonic plate, this could result.  This could happen any where, at any time, with us feeble humans being, once again, at Mother Nature's mercy.  Keep in mind those who are closely affected by natural disasters such as this, because as trite as the notion is, it is the truth.  

"What happens to one of us, can happen to all of us."