Understanding true wealth eradicates poverty

When do you feel richest? Laughing with friends, kissing your child goodnight, walking in the sunshine, building a life with your soul mate, enjoying a meal cooked with love, singing in the rain, dancing in the grass, kicking up leaves, and just being alive ... it is all about love. And love is F-R-E-E.

I believe that living well entails much more than indulging in epicurean pleasures. You cannot live the true good life unless you do good and enjoy ethically with respect for all living things and for yourself.

So far today, Blog Action Day 2008, over 10,000 bloggers have posted on poverty. My hope for all of you is that you understand true wealth, live a truly rich life and share this idea with as many people as you can: slowing down, savoring life and doing good is better for your economy, your health and your happiness...and it stops mindless consumption, heals the environment, and eradicates poverty.

You know what you have to do:
1. Read the quotes below.
2. Decide to be the change you want to see in the world.
3. Start doing good. If you have money, spread it around to people in need and the ethical companies that support them. If you have none, volunteer and give kindness from your heart and ideas from your head. Stop supporting any organizations whose business contributes to the unfair distribution of monetary wealth (unfortunately there are A LOT of them and the most basic action we can take to affect a change in this situation is to be diligent consumers, persistent in our demand for information and for the right to buy goods of ethical, sustainable and traceable origin.)

"Every good act is charity."
- Moliere

"Contentment is natural, luxury is artificial poverty."
- Socrates

"Wealth is the ability to fully experience life."
- Henry David Thoreau

"Your wealth is where your friends are."
- Titus Maccius Plautus

"Real wealth is ideas plus energy."
- Richard Buckminster Fuller

"Wealth is not a matter of intelligence it's a matter of inspiration."
- Jim Rohn

"A man's true wealth is the good he does in the world."
- Kahlil Gibran

"It's better to have a rich soul than to be rich."
- Olga Korbut

"Men are rich only as they give."
- Elbert Hubbard

"True happiness is...to enjoy the present, without anxious dependance on the future."
- Seneca

"That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest."
- Henry David Thoreau

"...true happiness comes from a sense of brotherhood ans sisterhood. We need to cultivate a universal responsibility for one another and the planet we share."
- Dalaia Lama

This excerpt from the European Commission, Joint Report on Social Inclusion 2004 published on Poverty.org.uk will help you better understand poverty and hopefully spark some ideas on what you can do to help:

"People are said to be living in poverty if their income and resources are so inadequate as to preclude them from having a standard of living considered acceptable in the society in which they live. Because of their poverty they may experience multiple disadvantage through unemployment, low income, poor housing, inadequate health care and barriers to lifelong learning, culture, sport and recreation. They are often excluded and marginalised from participating in activities (economic, social and cultural) that are the norm for other people and their access to fundamental rights may be restricted."

Bon courage!