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oda’s journal

christmas barter

· · 🌡️ 51°F

here's what i've accomplished from my posting the other day (see my post #29)

relaxing: i relax all the time. and i get requests for relaxing together with other people. i love seeing people relaxing

house cleaning/cleansing (i am especially good at doing deep cleaning involved with moving): i have totally changed the space i am living in. it was honestly the dirtiest place i've ever lived in that wasn't on wheels. i scrubbed the kitchen multiple times and cleaned off years of dirt from baseboards and months of two people who often spill things, and did lots of other intense cleaning. i have spent two hours a day cleaning here.

reiki: i did reiki today, but only for a minute because i have not been doing reiki much for the past months so i need to reestablish my connection with it

picking up trash: i have taken out a bag of trash six times this past week

taking care of children: i live with an infant and often feed her and hold her

spreading peace: i went to a sufi ritual to open your heart. we chanted and sang and danced together slowly and opened our hearts. it was a ritual i was unfamiliar with until this point.

arts & crafts: decorating for christmas. once the apartment was clean and cleared, my roommie and i were able to put up a christmas tree. we've been making baby books and will make christmas ornaments

cooking (vegetarian) meals for groups of people (especially brunch): i cooked brunch the other day for four people, we had scrambled eggs, hash browns, and pancakes and free dumpster bagels (which were totally legit, inside their own bag on top of everything), and coffee and mellow tea. welcome to oda's!




and here's what i've received

money, from my uncle, who sent me $100 bill for christmas and from my job stuffing envelopes, which ended up paying me $45 for the 10 hours i worked

rides to run errands around town, my mom brought me to go grocery shopping, and i spent the first $25 of my christmas money at wegmans, which enabled me to cook one of my best indian lentil dishes to share at a vegan potluck with a bunch of hippies

positive vibes, circle after dinner where we all shared a bit about who we are by telling the high point and low point of the past week

love, i am blessed to receive free yoga classes from a wise, poetic yoga teacher who has helped shape who i am. i hadn't been going to yoga only because i didn't have the money to do so, and although i never told her that, she made that beautiful offer.

we are so blessed!

thank you.

456 words

💬 2 comments

  1. paul ·

    I cannot imagine spending 10 hours stuffing evelopes for $45. There is nothing on earth that would make me work for less than minimum wage. Think about that - you were making less than the "minimum wage." You really just blow my mind. Does the money have "cleaner" energy because you were paid less than a "minimum wage" for you time?

    I am not saying that you should want to be a millionaire but it seems reasonable to leave dumpster bagels for people who really do have no other option and get a job with the skills you do have (and already paid for) to buy food with.

  2. oda ·

    paul,

    first, i did not know what the wage was for stuffing envelopes, it was mostly that i was helping bridget to motivate to start working after she had her baby. she's not able to leave the house to go to work now.

    and no, i would not say that the money had cleaner energy for working for less than minimum wage. but by not having to spend 1-1/2 hours each way on the bus, which is the honest situation for bridget, you save three hours a day by working at home. when you assume that your travel time to work is part of your "hours worked" each day, you can subtract these 3 hours from your 10 hours worked, and that would make your wage around $6.43/hour. also, when you take in to account that bridget has no office skills, we ended up wasting around 1 hour each by redoing a lot of the folding. this would make it a total of only 6 hours worked each, and at $45, that comes to $7.50. and it's something that a new mother who doesn't have a car or have to pay for day car could actually do.

    i only took 13 of the bagels, and there were around 200-300 bagels in the bag. they are there every night, and i am sure that many of them are often wasted. my sister told me about the dumpster, so i know that sometimes, people help themselves there. but in no way am i going to take more that i will use. (i have enough money to buy food for myself, but i am living in a house with three other people and it's really nice to be able to share things, especially when they don't really have the opportunities that i have.) and if i believed at all that someone else would go hungry if i took a few bagels for myself and my friends, i certainly would not take them. nor should i. but seeing things go to waste really bothers me, and i feel this is more of the actual situation.

    i suppose the idea would be to bring the bagels to a homeless shelter or something like that that could help a lot of people.

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