Support the Little Guys

I am currently saddened watching friends lose their small businesses due to the economic problems at hand. I have long been a supporter of small businesses and creative people who not only bring unique items onto the market but also bring a sense of neighborliness that we don't see too often these days. We live in a society of recovering excessivicity. I may have made up that word. Anyway, at one point (a few months back) we could throw our dollars at stores like Target where we'd walk in to buy shampoo and leave with two dvds, a shirt, another shirt, sunglasses, chips, an amazing scented candle & and 5.00 chapstick from the aisle only to glance back and grab a magazine at the last second before we checked out. We left. We realized..Oh CRAP. Forgot the Shampoo. The focus hasn't been on what we need so much as what we feel we deserve or what we want. We became people of excessive waste. Everytime I grab 8 million paper towels to clean something I remember. I am brainwashed. I don't need a whole roll of paper towels to clean a spot. The past few months we have seen such a sharp downturn in the economy that people have lost homes, retirements, businesses etc. and what's left is brokenness and a sense of helplessness but in turn a return of creativity and trust among neighbors and among business owners..where people need and offer help out of understanding and love. The beauty of "how it used to be..." where people were more important than things and where once upon a time it was a woman's honor to keep the house, cook & make clothing...where men worked hard to take care of their loved ones, where we actually ate the leftovers and where working hard just to make ends meet was the way of life. ..But there was joy...and accomplishment...and love....and family.... So, buy what you need, spend more time with those you love...and support the little guys;)