Today Human Trafficking Awareness Day, reminds us of the 4-5 million men, women, and children (20%) who are victims trafficked for labor and sex. Yearly, forced labor brings in $51 billon and sex trafficking $99 billion. One in 6 runaways can end up trafficked for sex. Today, spread awareness by wearing blue and adding #wearblueday to your social media posts.
Here is the next-to-last chapter description of The Women in Me: How they Helped Me Survive and Thrive (https://smthingscount.com/women-in-me/). Watch for the final chapter in this space next Wednesday.
Ch 18 Into the Future: What will my future look like, she asks. She dabbles with retirement, and fails. She examines her possibilities with her priest-friend, reaches out to others during the pandemic via Zoom, gives serious thought to what is important to her. She draws on the positivity willed to her by her Influencers. Finally, she has settled on a list of things she will do that will make her happy.
I’m struggling to keep an open mind up to November’s election but am finding it harder and harder to consider voting for someone who has, at least 4 times so far, disrespected and made fun of members of a group I’m part of–the disabled community. He doesn’t seem to understand that we, too, are human beings with the power of the vote. NOTE: This is PERSONAL, not political.
Often, as we look back on our lives, we recall and focus on mistakes we’ve made. I think this is true more of women than of men. Today’s Thursday Thought quote is good advice.
Here’s a preview of another chapter of my book, The Women in Me: How they Helped Me Survive and Thrive (https://smthingscount.com/women-in-me/).
Ch 17 Pop-Up Influencers: Everyone has a handful of major Influencers, those people who had the greatest impact on our lives. In addition, we have others who cross our paths briefly. We should not ignore what they offered us, as well. The author reminisces about a few of them.
It’s a brand-new year, a fresh start. How should we approach it? Resolutions will probably last only a few weeks. Action is more fruitful. This is a good time to focus more on where we need attitude adjustments. To acknowledge the fact that, when we encounter a stranger of a particular race, nationality, religion, age, housing-status, job, sexual orientation, etc., the little stomach flip-flop is a feeling of unease or distrust resulting from an unconscious judgment we’re making about someone. To recognize that it’s human nature to jump to conclusions about strangers, based not only on our past experiences, but also on social media, slanted news stories, friends’ opinions, and what’s going on in the world. These seep into our sub-conscious. If we work hard this year to identify those negative feelings and root them out, we’re that much closer to erasing what divides humanity and building a happier, more just world.