Forty two cents

Sometime in January I began to recognize some frustration. There were questions hanging, waiting for answers. Employment opportunities have been less than abundant given my education and training.

I needed to refocus on gratitude.

There was this mite box from the St. Nicholas Center, kicking around after all the paraphernalia of Christmas had been stored.

And then it came to me. I remembered the idea that a person was wealthy if one could end the week with change in their pocket. The idea of course is based on the understanding that wealth is relative. The comparison was being made to the circumstances of people in countries around the globe.

I also remembered that the studies prove that charity triggers the positive chemical firing in our brains.

I thought “Six cents a day. I bet I have at least 42 cents of loose change in my purse at the end of the week. That would be just six cents a day. Why not use the box and put in forty two cents each week, just six cents a day to use for an outreach or mission project in the coming year.”

There is nothing particularly dramatic in this action. It’s certainly not real sacrifice. No spectacular amounts, but it’s something more than lint and dust. It’s tangible and allows me to demonstrate to myself gratitude, compassion, and charity regularly. It fills a need that I believe we all have, a need to be able to respond to the needs of those less fortunate than ourselves. What project the money will fund is immaterial at the present. The significance is finding a way to concretize my awareness of having my needs provided for and still having some surplus.