“Money can’t buy you love,” as the Beatles were known to have said in one of their lyrics….but money can, and does, buy power, influence, and comfort. Just ask anyone who’s poor. Or anyone who’s rich. It’s all the same common knowledge. That’s why everyone (or most everyone) wants the green stuff…as much of it as they can get.

 Money generally has a bad reputation….it is the “Root of all Evil,” as some say, and has been known to destroy families, in one way or another, either through inheritances or lack thereof, or the perception that one got more than the other. Just ask the Rich….or the Poor. It’s all the same common knowledge.

When politicians talk about raising taxes on the Rich, it actually hurts the Poor. Just look at history. For example, the top 1% of earners in New York, for instance, account for 36% of the state’s total income. If tax rates become too high, some of the Rich leave. Many Rich own homes in other states, and/or other countries. They are wealthy enough to do that. Then what becomes of the tax base, in a state like New York, for instance? Who ends up funding the loss of revenue? Why the Middle Class, of course, and the Poor. Their taxes get raised, or their state budgets get cut. They lose either way. Usually the middle way is the best…the moderate way. Perhaps raising taxes a touch, and cutting a little out of budgets….nothing too drastic, but perhaps that combo makes it fair to everyone. But to punish the Rich has always proven disastrous…because again, as I mentioned, they can just get up and leave. They have the resources to do that. They are not prisoners of their financial circumstances, as many folks are. The Rich and the Poor are intrinsically entwined….because the Poor and Middle Class need the Rich, and the Rich need the workers (both white collar and blue) to keep the machines of their businesses going. We are all dependent on one another. Where it becomes sad is when one realizes that the Rich can now go overseas and hire workers that will take less in pay….the dependency becomes less for the American worker and the Rich. Therefore I cringe every time I hear a politician mention raising taxes on the Rich….it doesn’t work out well for the rest of us…especially now, with cheaper labor overseas.

The Machine…the cogs in the wheel of business and leisure. For one to say they are anti-business is to declare oneself a bit of a fool…without business, we wouldn’t have a country. It’s like when I used to hear people who owned a home say “Oh me, I’m not in the stock market,” well my friend, when your house lost half it’s value with the recession, you quickly discovered you WERE in the stock market, because the value had to do with the banking industry, which is involved with Wall Street. So the good part is that I think people are waking up and realizing that The Machine involves all of us…Rich, Poor, and Middle Class. We all need one another for The Machine to run smoothly.

The more money a person has, the more they spend, usually. Anything that reduces that will hurt the economy….real simple stuff. For The Machine to work well, we all need to understand what makes it tick.

Tick Tock…

Jennifer Avalon

Vacation….the very sound of it makes me smile. To vacate something…to step from one area to another. The beach, the mountains….or somewhere in-between. A ride across many states…an RV self-contained. A home away from home. A train-ride through the alps….lunch at a european cafe lining a cobblestone street, people-watching while sipping something exotic. To try something new. A vacation.

The funny thing about a vacation is that you can have one without ever leaving the spot you’re sitting in. Granted the air won’t feel different…the sounds won’t be either, nor the smells. But how we perceive life is all in our minds anyway, so if we have active imaginations we can leave where we are and go somewhere else just by sitting still. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine you are in a place you want to be….either somewhere you’ve been before, or somewhere you’ve always wanted to go to. If you’ve been there before, remember the details of what you enjoyed about it. If it’s somewhere new, imagine what it must feel like. I sometimes sit very still and remember my time in Heaven. It is a place I go to when I need to calm down and remember what truly matters. I go to The Garden. The colors are brighter, the light is different. And I am reminded that this earthly world is temporary, and we will all go Home someday. A mini-vacation, this life is. And yet we need a vacation from our mini-vacation sometimes!

I live near the ocean, so today I drove down to the beach and took a walk by the sea. I let my feet slosh through the waves, and watched all the many different folks sitting in the sun, and children playing with their buckets and shovels. In the parking lot were seagulls, and license plates from all over the country. I love seeing people swimming amongst the waves….people laughing and smiling. Many are most likely on a vacation…the time to let worries flow by the wayside, and enjoy the moment.

We only have so much time allotted to us during the year for that kind of time….so it’s important to be able to “go there” just by sitting alone in a room with walls. A vacation can be taken anytime we can find the moments…anytime our hearts and minds desire.

Please, go on vacation more often….

love,

Jennifer Avalon

There has to be a reason to swing our feet over the side of the bed every morning…otherwise, we would just curl up in a bundle of comfy comforters (depending on the season) and perhaps decide to stay there indefinitely. We want to feel safe…we want to feel loved…in a world that half the time doesn’t make sense, or really add up. The main reason to chuck the covers and stick our neck out is Hope….the belief that something better is coming down the pike….someone out there needs us….there really IS a light at the end of the tunnel, and we can only reach it if we make the best of where we are in Life.

I remember seeing the movie, I think it was called “Alive,” where an airplane crashes on a snowy mountaintop, and, after several days, the survivors realize a rescue is nowhere in sight. As more folks begin to die and freeze, the remaining people decide that in order to stay alive, they must eat their fellow frozen passengers. They cut the frozen flesh into matchstick slivers, and one claims that it tastes like chicken, from what I remember, which I thought was odd, but then again, I haven’t had, thankfully, the experience! I remember being horrified, but realized that it was a desperate and last ditch attempt to stay “alive.” It also made me realize, in a flash, how horrible suicide is, because if people are willing to go to such lengths to stay in this world, then what does it say about someone willing to toss it all away?

We are here for a reason…there is always Hope on the horizon, and there really IS a light at the end of the tunnel. These are basic facts, as far as I believe. Hope is the belief that no matter what Life throws at us, we can and WILL overcome it. I’m thinking now, in particular, about the folks in the Gulf States who must feel absolutely devastated by the oil disaster unfolding. What can one say to them? What was one supposed to say to the people standing in the bread lines during the Depression? If you truly believe you are here for a reason, then you find your way back from disaster, and trouble. You take stock of your situation, and don’t have blinders on. If you see a boulder headed your way, move yourself from its path. Sometimes a change is what’s in order….there are times when it’s just smart to go another direction, or move in a different way. We are all here for a reason….it’s our job to find out what the reason is.

Hope, Faith and Love…the three reasons to swing our legs over the side of the bed. Love, because without it the Universe, and we, would collapse. Faith, because we are always being watched by God and His Angels, and there IS a plan for each of us, and Hope, because a loving, faithful God wouldn’t have put us here, and where we are, if he didn’t have Hope for us. We are never to abandon God, because He never abandons us, even if we think, or feel so sometimes. I think God’s Hope is that we don’t forget this.

The strange thing about Life is that it can change overnight. Bad things can happen overnight, and Good things can happen overnight. The Hope is that we can handle the Bad with grace, and the Good with gratefulness….

Keep Hoping,

Jennifer Avalon