Thursday, November 11, 2010

Joy 46/82: Breaking Patterns

Dr. Jill Ginsberg grew up thinking her family was "dirt poor."  Her mother, a Holocaust survivor, lived with the paralyzing fear that calamity was always around the corner even though Ginsberg's father earned a good living as an attorney. “My mother talked constantly about we didn’t have money for this, we didn’t have money for that,” Ginsberg recalls. “She bought everything on sale and would say, ‘We just have $1 to spend on meat.’ I always felt ashamed that we were poor.”
  
As she grew older, she began to recognize some of the same traits of scarcity mentality in herself so when her mom died and left her some extra money, she decided to honor her mother ... and break her own pattern.  She made a commitment to give away $100 a day to a stranger.  Her blog recounts her journey through the 30 days.

This story has inspired me to think about some pattern I am still carrying from childhood and how I might creatively let go of it.  I'll have to report later about what it is and what I might do ... but if you have any creative ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Article about Dr. Ginsberg's give away.

4 comments:

  1. How interesting that we both have a post today on a Holocaust survivor.

    Looking forward to following your link.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just read story at link. I'm always struck by how people offered money first try to refuse it, despite need. The comment in the story that "No one does something for nothing." is almost a cliche. What's wonderful is that there truly are people in this world of ours who do "something for nothing".

    ReplyDelete
  3. when I used to work in the corporate sector, before I started at the homeless shelter where I now work, I would put twenty-dollars in 'toonies' in my wallet every week and give them away to people -- mostly panhandlers -- on the street. I could give all in one go, or one at a time, whatever I chose. There was something open and supportive about doing that.

    Thanks for this wonderful linke!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hmmm. Can't wait to hear what childhood pattern you take on. And now you've got me thinking about some patterns of my own...

    ReplyDelete