Olivia Gaines Author

Giving Back

Posted on January 27, 2013

This week’s assignment was for me to donate ten percent of my income to a charitable organization.  I didn’t do it and I will tell you why.  I was always taught that charity starts at home so that is where I placed by 10%.  Not in my home, but in someone who feels like home to me.

It started off as an odd weekend and I started to receive calls from friends and family I had not heard from in a while.  I then went through my phone to make sure I returned the calls to those who had called me, but I was too busy to at the time to either speak with them or I forgot to return the call. I spoke with my mother’s brother, the last of the my mother’s brothers, who is a grand eighty five years of age.  I spoke with a friend of 30 years who has been going through some personal trials.  I then decided to call a friend that had mentioned on Facebook that he was not well.  After about twenty minutes, he told me of another friend who was having personal financial difficulties.

This friend and I go back a long ways.  We have shared a lifetime together from our high school, to college and even adult years.  She, to me, is a symbol of home.  My ten percent, I put in an envelope and a card that said, “just because.”

I am learning.  I am growing.  I am becoming a master of my money.

You know what else I learned: that shit felt good.

Commandment Number Seven said I should know my friends, and my friends should also know me.  They should know that I don’t forget, and if I can, I will be there. This also directly reflects on Commandment Number 10, that I am spreading the wealth.  I don’t have much, but I can share what I have.

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