Abundance

The other day I had a minor freakout about money because after I got my last paycheck from work, it was gone almost immediately. But it was spent on things that make life good - the property tax for our house and land - which is all we have to pay to live here; my internet bill, a library card and things so we can use two computers at once. Today I sat down and wrote up a budget and discovered that, even though my mom's disability income is only $800 a month, we can actually have over $100 of free spending money every month. And that's even after luxuries like Netflix and high-speed internet and yummy snacks. 100-something a month is enough to cover incidentals and the occasional lunch out and a new CD or shirt every now and then, which is all we need. I looked around today at how full our house is of cool stuff, and how big and beautiful our yard is, and how happy and sweet our pets are. I'm really thankful that I have a mom who lets me stay home, and who has always treated me nice enough that I'd want to stay here instead of leaving her alone, and that we live in a country that takes care - imperfectly, but better than many countries - of its disabled people, so that my mom could be free and I could exist. Thinking about this makes me appreciate a little better just what it means for black people that we have a black president. If we'd never had a president with a disability I don't know where my family would be today, but we probably wouldn't be here, happy and confident that we'll always be okay.