Whoever Said Money Can Not Buy Happiness.

So I was watching "Selling New York" and they were talking about how this ONE property was RENTING for $30,000 and I started thinking about if I had enough money to actually spend it on just rent each month or what I would actually do with it. Right now I can hardly even imagine considering I am making about $1000 a month and pretty much every single cent is going to my bills, BUT I've been wanting SO badly to contribute to the community or something to that effect. Right now I have been volunteering at CHP in their clerical office. Not much to change the world but I guess it is something to help my community. But anyways, I'm getting off topic...back to the "If I had a billion dollars thing"... I was sitting there thinking and I decided that IF I EVER had enough money to share the wealth I would want to help less fortunate children. Not in the way of I want to make sure they have nice things so they can fit in with others sort of helping, but helping in the way of sending children and teens to music camps, helping provide books so children can develop imaginations, funding art for schools, helping single parents who can only just get by, I would love to help people who can't afford to go to college (just like me), help keep sports programs in schools, and I'm sure there is a ton more I would want to do but I can't think of at the moment. Could you imagine if all those people who could afford to pay $30,000 a MONTH for rent, rented just a little bit smaller homes and helped out people who actually need it? I couldn't imagine how many people they could help. A lot of people, like myself, live on less than $30,000 a year and some people spend it a month JUST on RENT! How much else to they spend on just STUFF! I can't even afford to buy bread...or pretty much anything else for that matter after I pay my bills...which are behind...*eep*...anyways...just something to be thinking about. "Charity Never Faileth" I love that motto. I wish everyone believed it. Next time just remember a little help can go a long way and sometime you may need it yourself and if you never give then how can you expect to receive.

Oh and here is a charity I would LOVE to donate to but can't afford. It's called Kids Need To Read www.kidsneedtoread.org Check it out!

Unnerving Fear

So everything and I mean everything lately has been telling me that I need to put my life into the Lords hands. I need to start paying my tithing even when I can't afford to pay all of my bills. I need to always have a prayer in my heart, always have my aim towards my Savior and Lord. I was just having a quick chat with a really good friend and he sent me a link to an article that said just that. Put your life with the Lord.
I was tearing apart my room the other day trying to find some stuff I had written when I found something else I hadn't realized I had scribbled down quite a long time ago. It wasn't written very well but it still had the same effect on my soul. I don't remember writing it but it's in my handwriting and in my notebook, so I guess it's just something that poured out of me in one of my moments when things go foggy and I write without realizing.

Living with my eyes shut
Sleeping with them open
These nightmares I'm avoiding
Are waiting patiently
I turn my back to run
More nightmares are always waiting
Turning in circles
No where to go
I fall to my knees
Turn toward the Heavens
There you are, waiting.
I start to cry
You reach down and hold me
I ask "Where were you?"
He says "I've been here the whole time,
Waiting for you to remember."
I ask "Remember What?"
He says "That I know those nightmares
And have seen them too, but they're not real.
I am."

After I read what I had written my head was almost spinning. It was exactly what I needed to hear, needed to know. It's amazing how I could have written this so long ago, it not having very much meaning then, but when I am drowning in fear, holding back my screams and tears, my own words are found to comfort me. God knows exactly what we need and when we need it. How can things not go right when you put everything in His hands? A friend of mine was recently having issues and she told me "There are so many things I regret and they just hang over me and never go away." What she said got me thinking. Heavenly Father does not want us to regret anything so that it stays with us and inhibits us from progressing. If we regret our past decisions and never move on, we never continue to learn and progress spiritually. We need to take what we are dealt and make the best of it. Learn from our past mistakes to make right choices in the future. If we don't learn from the past then how can we expect any kind of future to be before us? Regret nothing because your triumphs and failures make you who you are and who you will become. Put your life into the hands of the Lord and invite him into your life, always, not only when you need him.

Forever a glimpse.

So it's time again to update with some pictures! Here are a few of some recent pictures I have taken! Hope you enjoy!

Translated Musical Visions

Ok. So my friend Adam Watts is an awesome lyricist and musician. I mean brilliant. He was asked by Cornelia Funke's publisher to write a song for the release of her brand new book "Reckless". She is the author of the Ink Series, The Thief Lord, and many more best sellers. This new book is about a boy who has to figure out how to save his brother from a land that lays beyond this world. He has to figure out how to go through a mirror and save his brother before his brother turns into a monster in this other world.

Adam will be accompanying Cornelia in September on her US tour in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle playing this song and I'm sure a few others from his upcoming album entitled "Murder Yesterday" which is due to be release the same month.

The video is Adam Watts' and Daniel Chesnut's creation. They decided to film it on a whim and took what they had and created something beautiful. The adorable kiddo is Adam's niece, Grace. I've met her and she is so adorable and so dramatic. I think she actually does amazing in this music video. And she loves the camera...you can just tell.

So click the link and enjoy.

http://vimeo.com/12839095

One Man's Action Can Kill Many.

So I found out today that my Mother, who is working for the state of California, will now be making minimum wage. Federal minimum wage. That is $7.25 an hour or 1160 a month. That is before taxes. So she will probably brink home $800 if she is lucky. That doesn't even cover the house payment, let alone paying for car insurance, utilities, feeding herself or the two dogs she has. Not to mention I was laid off from my job almost a year ago and still have yet to find a job. I at least have unemployment but that just barely covers my expenses. I can not comprehend why it is so difficult for legislature to pass a budget. Why they need to cater towards masses to make themselves look good so, heaven forbid just in case, they might make it beyond the state legislature into something federal. Why wouldn't they want to be remember as the state legislature that stood up against the governor and told him where to stick it while letting the lowly state employees that were already scraping by making no head room and living paycheck to paycheck get by. Why is it that the state of california needs to put this mask on and pretend everything is ok when they are forcing thousands upon thousands of workers, parents, single parents, families, and children out of their homes to be hungry and out of options like a third world country. Pretty soon california is going to be a run down and unforgiving place of crime, fear, dying children, broken families, and completely unmanageable because of the decisions the governor. Isn't the governor the person that is suppose to look after the well-being of the outlined space to be governed? I guess these are just the thoughts of a scared, pretty much uneducated young woman. But, is it truly so hard to put the well-being of the citizens above the budget that is so unmanageable in the first place? Sure the governor isn't at all going to be affected. He is not being paid for his job. He already has millions upon millions. Lives lavishly with no wants. While families like mine live to get by, not able to get ahead. I am not sure what our family will do let alone my cousin who has a wife with four small daughters to support as well. Does the governor not think of the lives that might be lost because of a decision like this? I know all to well what money matters can do to the mind. My Great-Grandfather committed suicide because of the depression and his lack of ability to support his family. Will a man in office ruining the lives of many, not have the same effect on the mental stability of the state he is supposed to care for? These may just be ramblings, but it is how someone at the bottom feels.