There's A Recession - have a blast!!!

With the recession, people are cutting back. They're canceling vacations, skipping the restaurant and staying home. And when news of a layoff comes, they cut back even more.

It's important to watch our pennies these days, but the people who do the best are keeping one thing at all costs - fun.

When we give things up, we often don't replace them - then we feel deprived, angry, hurt and sad. It's why many diets don't work. We feel like we're being punished, that things are unfair. And if we have kids, they often pick up on that and feel the same way. We say things like "we can't afford that" and "we don't have the money."

It creates sort of a self-fulfilling prophesy. And we go into job interviews with this hurt, deprived, "I can't afford it" quality permeating everything we say. Not very attractive.

What if instead of this we took a look at our budget so we could tighten it, network to find jobs, look for the best deals, trade for what you need, cancel vacation (if necessary) but also took a look at how can we maintain the fun?

I would argue that fun should be at the top of the list because it helps us maintain a positive mind-set. It reduces stress and helps us reconnect with our kids and with one another. It can help you sleep better at night, reduces over-eating ... and imagine going into a job interview with this fun attitude. Imagine the night before you played cards with your family and just finished a picnic with your partner just before the interview. You'll be a better mood - and it'll show.

Instead of saying "we can't afford that" - see it as a choice. Instead of dinner at a restaurant and going out to a movie, you might trade movies with the neighbors and have a pot luck. Instead of taking a vacation, you can set up a tent in the back yard or trade homes with a friend.

Instead of going to a ball game, play baseball with your kids and their friends. Board games, pic-nics, swimming, tennis, learning a new skill in exchange for teaching, pot lucks...all are free or low cost ways to have a good time.

During the recession don't give up the fun. Think of a way to translate more expensive activities you enjoy into more frugal entertainment. It doesn't have to be expensive but having fun is vital for peace of mind and good relationships.

Enjoy!

Weeds

Colorado has been unseasonably cool and rainy this summer. It's a good thing overall - we often have watering restrictions. It's good for the weeds too. For the past five years or so, we've had a bumper crop of weeds. This year I finally surrendered and called a landscaper. He took a look and said "Round-Up!" I explained we tried that - twice. We also tried planting other things (the weeds won) and even a blow torch. But the weeds are back...again.

Another landscaper has suggested pulling them out by their roots, so instead of mowing, we're pulling. The problem is that they're growing faster than we can pull! We have some that look like sequoias.

And so we have resolved to pull the tallest ones and just mow the rest. The other alternative involves a back hoe, a team of highly skilled professional xeriscapers and a tag team of laborers working 24/7 for weeks if not months.

But this whole thing got me thinking...we work so hard against our natural tendencies. My yard's natural tendency is to grow weeds and I'm fighting it. In that case I probably should.

But what about us? If we have straight hair, we curl it. If it's curly, we straighten it. If we're fat, we beat on ourselves - but the same thing happens if we're thin. We can always find a reason not to accept ourselves. And we spend so much time, money, energy and resources on fighting against our genes!

Yesterday Farrah Fawcett passed away. I watched the documentary she made and as she lost her hair, her skin darkened to an ashen color and her body bloated she never whined about it. She had been arguably one of the most beautiful women on the planet and that was all fading away quickly as the cancer invaded her body. But she had such a clear sense of what was important - being alive, being loved and loving right back, fighting for what's right and a sense of humor and altruism.

Thank you Farrah - wherever you are - for this final lesson. Accept yourself but not only that - embrace yourself. Don't throw away valuable time trying to change who you are. I attended a talk recently and the speaker quoted a poem. I loved it, but didn't catch the author. He said, "I dreamed I was a great ocean that was jealous of a pond."

Instead of picking out all your flaws and ruminating on them, ruminate on all your fantastic qualities - share them with the world. Feel free to admire others, but recognize your own gifts too.

As Antoine Saint Exupery said "What is essential is invisible to the eye."