Thought for today:
"A press report recently indicated that the number of people in Great Britain who are next door to bankruptcy or are one week away from penury has grown inexorably. Food banks are cropping up all over the country and people in jobs but who are on minimum wages often feel obliged to use their services to get by from one week to the next. I also understand that a massive increase has occurred in the practice of 'skipping' (getting one's food from the supermarket refuse bins after the out-of-date stock has been discarded by the end of the day.
For the country as a whole, we are generally economically worse off than we have been since the last financial crash and there are so many occupations which have received no pay rise for the past ten years, despite the cost of living rises that have occurred in the last decade.
While austerity has struck the nation since the New Millennium and whilst it is undoubtedly good for many of us to have enough money to live on without undue worry, we would all do well never to forget the things that no amount of money can ever buy like good health, happiness, love and a sense of belonging and purpose.
When I was young and growing up in a large family with no spare money, my level-headed mother frequently told me that anyone without money will care about the lack of it, but people with too much money to spend will not care about it until they come to the end of it, just like some others do when they come to the end of their time.
For my part, in later life, I find myself comfortably off, but when money was extremely short when the children were growing up, I found that I coped better with its lack if I stressed less and lived life more. I learned to enjoy the things in life more that I could do with my children and family that cost no money; only time, personal consideration and a little effort. I do not think that any amount of money or expensive activity could have brought us more enjoyment, fun and laughter than the woodland and country walks we frequently went on every weekend, the open air picnics we had and the games we played at the family table on wet weekend afternoons.
Though, in truth, none of us walked in the country and played family games while my children grew up, but during the years that me and my six siblings grew up in 50's and 60's, I recall going to bed hungry a number of times with the family having less food in the larder than many a 'food bank' family might have today and we never felt poor; perhaps because nobody bothered to tell us that we were! " William Forde: March 28th, 2017.
"A press report recently indicated that the number of people in Great Britain who are next door to bankruptcy or are one week away from penury has grown inexorably. Food banks are cropping up all over the country and people in jobs but who are on minimum wages often feel obliged to use their services to get by from one week to the next. I also understand that a massive increase has occurred in the practice of 'skipping' (getting one's food from the supermarket refuse bins after the out-of-date stock has been discarded by the end of the day.
For the country as a whole, we are generally economically worse off than we have been since the last financial crash and there are so many occupations which have received no pay rise for the past ten years, despite the cost of living rises that have occurred in the last decade.
While austerity has struck the nation since the New Millennium and whilst it is undoubtedly good for many of us to have enough money to live on without undue worry, we would all do well never to forget the things that no amount of money can ever buy like good health, happiness, love and a sense of belonging and purpose.
When I was young and growing up in a large family with no spare money, my level-headed mother frequently told me that anyone without money will care about the lack of it, but people with too much money to spend will not care about it until they come to the end of it, just like some others do when they come to the end of their time.
For my part, in later life, I find myself comfortably off, but when money was extremely short when the children were growing up, I found that I coped better with its lack if I stressed less and lived life more. I learned to enjoy the things in life more that I could do with my children and family that cost no money; only time, personal consideration and a little effort. I do not think that any amount of money or expensive activity could have brought us more enjoyment, fun and laughter than the woodland and country walks we frequently went on every weekend, the open air picnics we had and the games we played at the family table on wet weekend afternoons.
Though, in truth, none of us walked in the country and played family games while my children grew up, but during the years that me and my six siblings grew up in 50's and 60's, I recall going to bed hungry a number of times with the family having less food in the larder than many a 'food bank' family might have today and we never felt poor; perhaps because nobody bothered to tell us that we were! " William Forde: March 28th, 2017.
