I kept waking up in a horrible dream. Every night I would wake up with a voice echoing in my head saying install closet organizer. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but it is true and also very traumatizing. Lately I had been so tired. I promised myself that I would do it on Saturday. Then Sunday came, and passed. Monday night I had the awful dream again. I can’t really call it a dream, it’s more of a nightmare. With a nightmarish voice saying install closet organizer. If you saw my closet I think you would understand why I was having nightmares about it. The dog even started scolding me for it. She wouldn’t even go near the closet and when she did she just barked and cried at it. Maybe it’s haunted? Maybe the ghost doesn’t like messy closets. Aren’t dogs supposed to be clairvoyant when it comes to the afterlife? I think my dog is seeing ghosts in my closet and the ghost is pissed so he is haunting my dreams telling me to install a closet organizer. Maybe it’s just me who needs help. This does sound like a psych patient story, but I swear it’s true, and unfortunately, it is my life.

I just started a new job – I make more money, I work better and shorter hours, I’ve got more vacation time and there are more paid holidays.  The only thing that I’m not too crazy about is the prescription drug plan.  I have a prescription for my high blood pressure and acid reflux, my son takes a prescription for asthma and my wife seems to be on just about everything under the sun.  I think I probably should have looked into the companies insurance a little more before I accepted the job, I just might be losing money each month by having taken a position where I’m making more money.  It’s crazy how much medical expenses are in this country.  Oh well, Canada has free health care, it shouldn’t be long before the United States follows suit and jumps on the free health care bandwagon too, right.  I’ll just bide my time and wait for that day to come, then I’ll be rolling in the dough – that is, if I haven’t had to file bankruptcy because I can’t pay the medical bills that have built up by then.  Now I know why they pay their employees so well, because if they didn’t, in one year the flu season alone would have half of their staff in the poor house.

Our neighbors, who has their house broken into and basically destroyed by vandals, blames themselves for not setting the alarm.  They are in the process of having their home remodeled but are having to stay elsewhere for a little while until it is livable again.  We had them over for dinner and a movie the other night and they updated us on all the hard work they are having to do to make sure this does not happen to them again.  They are telling everyone how important it is to try their very best to protect their home.  Even if you don’t think you can, they say there are lots of affordable home alarms out there that would offer some measure of protection against this kind of thing.  I think they have turned into crusaders where home security is concerned.  They at first were just overwhelmed that such a thing could happen to them.  Then they got angry and decided to try to help educate people on home security.  They have started attending those CAPS meetings and talking to people about their experience.  They say experience is such a hard teacher, and hope people will instead listen to their story.

How many attorneys do you actually know?  I know a personal injury attorney in San Diego, but I don’t know him because of that.  I actually met him at a San Diego Padres baseball game.  They were playing the San Francisco Giants and I ended sitting next to Ralph up in the bleachers.  We were both Giants fans, having both grown up in San Francisco and then moved to San Diego later, and they were losing.  Losing badly.  The score was 10-2 and we had nothing better to do than drink more and more and heckle the outfielders.  Barry Bonds even glared at me for a full minute before turning back around.  That made me really proud.  Anyway, Ralph’s not a bad guy, not even for a personal injury attorney in San Diego.  Yeah, he admits that he runs around and chases ambulances for clients, but it’s what he has to do to make a living.  He has a house, a wife, and three kids.  How else is he supposed to pay all his bills and make sure they can all go to school?  All of them, even his wife.  She just started college and he wants to be able to pay her tuition.  If that means chasing ambulances and maybe making a buck or two off someone else’s bad luck, hey, that’s how it goes. 

While Jim was working on maintaining sugar levels, I began to do the same thing.  I had put on weight lately; due to the bad and long winter we have been having here; and my diet. I don't feel much like cooking for myself, and when you go out to eat that food is just loaded with fat and salt and other bad stuff.  Tara told me not to worry about it, that I should just eat less and go with Jim to get some exercise.  I thought I would go an extra step and change my diet around a bit.  So I went to the bookstore and got a couple of different books on diet, and one on exercise. The books really didn't have much more information than what was available online, but I read through them anyway.  Some had some good recipes, but I don't have the patience for measuring and mixing and all that.  I am usually too tired at the end of the day. And I'm not going to spend all day Saturday or Sunday preparing what I'm going to eat for the week.  Jim is doing okay with his program.  In fact, he had to go out and buy an entire set of new clothing for work.  His old clothing looked way too baggy on him. 

All I know is, it’s cold outside!  There is a wind chill factor of minus 19 this morning.  I am not happy to be in Boston today, and I will probably have to spend the rest of the week here.  Somehow, the cold weather feels different here than it does back home in Chicago.  There is definitely more snow.  We are here because of my Nephew, who decided to graduate in January.  We are all very proud of him.  Because of his conflicting, busy schedule, he has also decided to get his Lasik in Boston instead of Chicago.  This is going to be his graduation present from us.  He has wanted to do this since he was in high school.  And, since he has multiple offers to consider now that he has graduated, and in the meantime he wants to continue working in his present job here in Boston, he thinks it’s best to get it done here.  Besides, he has researched this, asked a million questions of probably a million ophthalmologists, and people who have had this done.  We have not doubt it will turn out well for him and he will be very satisfied with the end results.

It can be a challenge, but very rewarding to start a local business such as a boutique, cafe or service oriented office. If one has ever attempted to start their own venture, one knows the importance of supporting your local business owners. Even if one has not attempted to open a store or small business, there are so many reasons to support these inspiring souls–the local vendors.

 One reason to support them is to keep large corporations from taking over the world. Kudos to the heads of these corporations for being such excellent business people. However, most of these corporations keep growing, and don't need our help as much as, say, the fruit stand on the corner, the flower stand on the street, or the rare book store where the owners go out of their way to find that mint-condition 1920 edition of your favorite British novel.

 Another reason to support your local vendors is that their business is truly their bread-and-butter. They need to pay rent for their business space, as well as rents or mortgages on their living space; and of course they need to provide food and clothing for themselves and their families.

 A third reason, and one of the most important, is that by supporting your local vendors, you are supporting hope. The local vendor's business is their baby, their dream, their vision. They had the courage to set out on their own, nurturing their beliefs in themselves. By believing in them, you can also begin to set the intention to believe in yourself, and have faith in your own creativity.

 To start and run a local business of one's own–and have it be successful–does take all of the above. Connecting with and believing in yourself and your creativity, knowing that this business venture is truly aligned with your soul's path, having faith. What we feel and think (what we put out in to the universe) instantly attracts our current situations, at all times. If you feel in your body and know in your heart that you will be a success, the universe responds to that and you attract success like a magnet. There is no room for failure because there is no doubt or worry being tossed around–no chatterbox in the mind saying "what if-".

 Of course, businesses need the practical qualities of planning and advertising; the earthly things that must be there in order for clients and customers to learn that the business is there in the first place. But the practical aspects must be supported by the spirit for any product or service to start selling like wildfire.

 We can do anything we set our minds, bodies and souls to. The phrase "Think Globally, Act Locally" doesn't apply solely to environmental issues–it can pertain also to our own hopes and dreams–and by each of us nurturing hope locally, we can surely spread hope globally.

 Support your local vendors, the individualists–the courageous ones–it helps them, and inspires us to treat our own dreams as sacred.