I’ve put off writing my post for Blog Action Day until right now. It’s nearly 5:00PM and I’ve still got nothing written. I had planned to come up with something well in advance, but simply couldn’t do so. It’s not that I had spaced it out. It’s been on my mind a lot as I’d vowed not to forget this day.

My issue is this: I do not feel as though I want to write about people in poverty as though they are some separate entity. The fact that I’ve experienced more poverty in the past year than in all of my life has hit me very hard. Now, I know that people may look through my pictures, see my house, my vehicle, my kids in clean & decent clothes, see pictures of a table with tasty food…etc. I will not for a moment claim that things couldn’t be worse. They most certainly could…and I’m VERY grateful for what I do have…and make a point to thank God for it daily. I fully understand that I have it much better than many, many people in this world. For my life and what I’ve been through, though, I am being fully honest with you when I say that I have struggled with finances more in the past year than I ever want to again…and it’s still not over. It’s not even close to being over.

I feel like there are different levels of poverty, and I am in one of them. Lonnie and I were much better off not so long ago. Not so long ago at all. Two years ago, our bank accounts looked totally different than they do now. As with many other people as of late, we’re struggling just to make it day-to-day. It seems like every single day finds another expense that needs to be paid…another person wanting their money. I’ve never been this delinquent on bills in my entire life. We went from being current on all bills and payments to having to park our vehicle in our garage in order to prevent the repo man from being able to take it from us. We’ve gone from being able to easily be afford back-to-school clothes and supplies to having to sell stuff in order to be able to buy the items needed. We’ve gone from purchasing the largest picture packet of school photos to not purchasing any at all and taking our own photos. We’ve gone from eating out at a restaurant at least once a week to going to Family Services to ask for a food basket. We’ve gone from buying into a home and being on time with our house payment to renting a home that we are a month behind on…and we only moved in a couple months ago. We’ve gone from completely taking the fact that when we flip a switch the lights come on for granted, to holding our breath when we flip the switch in hopes that the utilities haven’t been shut off due to lack of payment.

I could continue to go on and on about how much we’re struggling, but I think you get the drift. What I don’t want is for anyone to think I’m shelling out a sob story. That is so not the point. The point is, however, that as of late my family and I have turned into the face of poverty. We can thank the government or whomever else for that…but the fact still remains. Poverty has grown so broad and so quickly that everywhere we look we see it. It isn’t just the people who you see sleeping on the street. It’s the people you see when you look out your kitchen window…or maybe even when you look in the mirror.

So what can be said about it? What is there to say? …

I will be participating in Blog Action Day this year.  I thought I’d post something about it now so that people who’ve not heard of it yet will have time to really think things out and decide how they are going to participate. I think it would be awesome if we all pulled together on October 15th and do our best to make a difference. This year’s topic is Poverty.

“Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters, and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.”

“First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue.

By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.

Out of this discussion naturally flow actions, advice, ideas, plans, and empowerment. In 2007 on the theme of the Environment, we saw bloggers running environmental experiments, detailing innovative ideas on creating sustainable practices and focusing audience’s attentions on organizations and companies promoting green agendas. In 2008 we aim to again focus the blogging community’s energies and passions, this time on the mammoth issue of global poverty.”

If you would like to register your blog, simply go HERE and fill out the form.