Needs & Wants

Hola!

This may or may not be a repeat from my blog last year on wants & needs but here we go...

Think about your greatest needs. Okay, now think about how much time you put into getting those needs. Not a lot right? As a team, we decided that our greatest needs are love (emotional support & relationships), food, water, & shelter, and of course health and education. Think about how long it takes for you to just drive down the road and pick up some groceries, or how difficult it is to receive "free" health care- it's really not that difficult. Our basic needs take up very little time, in fact it takes up so little time that we barely even notice them anymore. When was the last time you actually recognized that you were eating a meal... or that you were going "home". All of our needs are so easily provided for us that they go unnoticed. We do not appreciate our needs as much as we should. Our wants, however take up all of our time. We want new clothes and want to try new foods constantly. We focus so much of our time on competing and trying to meet expectations, and why? Simply to please others. We focus so much of our time trying to compete with others and trying to make others happy that it leaves us being unhappy with ourselves. We need to focus and acknowledge our needs more often and focus a lot less on our "wants."

The people here only know one thing: their needs. They know what their needs are and they strive each and every day to get their basics. I heard a quote today from my leader that he actually heard from a local in Haiti: "Poverty takes up a lot of time." And its so true, they spend their days walking to get water or trying to find food, building a home or fixing their roof. They don't have enough hours in a day to fulfill their basic needs. They focus on what they need to make it through the next day and that's all. They value things like their family and their relationships that they have, they value the food and water that they get every now and then, and most certainly- they value education. The children here want to go to school, they love going to Sunday school and absolutely love to learn- they appreciate everything that education offers them. They value each and every single day and consider their needs to be blessings.

Reflection:

Think strongly about what your needs and wants are. Do you really need all of those clothes, or all of those electronic gadgets? What are you striving for in life? Is it totally based on money and power? Cause if so, change it. Life is too short to focus on the things that don't matter. Find what you love to do and go after it, if you're unhappy then change it. Be who you want to be and make every one of your dreams come true. Live life to the fullest and look back on no regrets.

Love You All,

Bianca :)