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As today's title says, it's Blog Action Day. The topic is on Poverty. Interestingly, there are different kinds of Poverty. There is the most obvious kind which is financial poverty. We see "those" poor people, avert our eyes to look away and pretend that they are not there, as we cross the street or turn away from them. It's almost as if they are like ghost and do not really exist.

But then there are these other kinds of poverty that I encounter every day that are beyond the financial poverty. I deal with people who struggle with poverty in regards to having positive emotion. They have plenty of anger, tons of rudeness, full of anxiety and general unhappiness and thrive on gossip. It's pretty sad in and of itself, because they usually don't see it, within themselves. What that usually translates into is a kind of spiritual poverty.

We can usually notice spiritual poverty in whether people are hopeful and capable of acting in a trustworthy way or not. Do they have integrity? Are they living in the problem or the solution? Do they (we) support and build each other up, or is there an attempt to extract something from you and tear us down?

If it's true, that we are all interconnected, then it matters if when people are living in emotional and/or spiritual poverty. What happens to you, happens to me. If there is a part within you that is emotionally or spiritually bankrupt - it's there within me too. It's a moral imperative that we help each other out of this poverty.

There are many ways to help others out of Emotional and Spiritual Poverty. Sometimes it's as simple as being a positive power of example, offering hope. It might be sharing a joke and a laugh, creating a gap in someone's emotional storm clouds. Other times it's just sharing simple human kindness and respect - that turns into a kind of food for the soul. It also may involved taking a stand and when people are acting in an abusive manner, walking away from them, playing it straight and say, "I care and respect you, but I don't enjoy the behavior. I choose not to enable you in this way."

Climbing out of emotional and spiritual poverty is just as (if not more) important as getting of out financial poverty. It's because when we live in that kind of poverty, it distorts how we see the world and interact with ourselves and others. Lets take one small step today and see if we can help someone out of emotional and/or spiritual poverty, even if it's just starting with ourselves. Remember, the currency of Love is kindness and compassion.

May All Beings Be Happy and Free,

Jaye Morris, Curator
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