Affecting Change - How Can We Help Others Achieve Basic Needs?

 I've been working on my newest story - for the Monday prompt. It flowed easily, and I'm in final edits before I post. Some prompts are easy, others are more difficult, but what I find really fun is writing to a prompt again. That's an exercise in thoughts and direction that I haven't had for quite a while, and it's wonderful to be back in that challenge mode. 

It's fun to write to prompts. It's a challenge that pushes 
my boundaries and makes me think outside the box. I have 
the next prompt ready to post, just need a bit more 
editing. Sometimes they're easy, sometimes not, but 
it's the fun of it that makes it worthwhile. 

We all give ourselves small challenges each day. It could be something as easy (or, in some cases, as difficult) - as getting out of bed in the morning. Having something nutritious for breakfast. Thinking about the day's schedule. But for some people, those three relatively easy things are great challenges. 

Shoveling the driveway is NOT one of my favorite 
tasks, although it's good physical exercise. I'll be 
running into time deadlines once we get our first 
snowfall. We're possibly getting that next week. 

On a snowy day when I need to get to the pool, the last thing I want is to drag myself out of bed. Those are the days when you'll get minimal "I'm here, I'm, alive, I'm heading out to shovel snow" blogs because the time needed to shovel cuts into the less than one hour I have to write and post my blog on swimming days, and I'm NOT cutting down on my daily meditation. 

I usually have fruit for breakfast. An hour later or so, I 
might have a couple of slices of grain-free bread. I 
always try to have fruit on an empty stomach and wait 
for at least 30-60 minutes before eating anything else. 
It helps digest the fruit, and is better nutritionally than 
adding the fruit on top of something else, like a cereal. 

Having something nutritious for breakfast can vary. I'm fortunate - I have excellent grocery stores nearby, and I have enough money to be able to purchase whatever I feel necessary for my food. I know that's not the case for everyone. I know that finding food, for many around the world, is a non-ending quest that often leads to hunger at night. Famine and starvation is too prevalent in our world, and really, with the resources and vast fields of food that are grown in the USA, Canada, Russia and other nations, there's no excuse. In my nation alone, we probably throw away enough food to feed the hungry of a small nation daily. It's to our shame that we're not helping as much as we probably could. 

This is the most recent World Hunger Map I could find. 
It's from 2020. That there is hunger anywhere in the world 
with the resources we have to share with others, is tragic. 
We shouldn't be seeing any color other than turquoise 
throughout the world. As usual, Africa is the worst, but 
India and Southeast Asia have their share too. 

As for the day's schedule - for too many in this world, that schedule consists of survive. Just the one word - survive. In nations split apart by war or internal upheaval, in lands where each day is another long journey for a handful of food, and in places where going anywhere is unsafe, survival can be questionable and, in some cases, almost impossible. 

If you've got enough to put food on your table 
regularly, heat your home, and you don't have to 
take your life into your hands when you leave 
your home or neighborhood, than reach out your 
hands and help others. Someone, maybe only a short 
distance from you, could use a helping hand. 

If you live in any place where the three stages of awakening, getting out of bed, and reviewing the day's schedule is possible and you won't take your life into your hands to obtain any of these three things, you're fortunate. You're very lucky. Now ... how can you pass your good fortune on to those who can't do these three things. Think about it - small things are perfectly acceptable, change happens with small steps. Affect change, in your own way, in your own time. Leave the world a better place tonight than it was this morning when you awakened. Namaste, I'll be back tomorrow.