GPP_Devon

Exhaustion. It’s day 5 and I have completed the Live Below the Line campaign. There were moments I felt weak and I’m very tired as I type this but ultimately I know I came out strong. I have a small understanding for what it feels like to feel hungry. Now I feel like I’m really meant to immerse myself in poverty and have an adventure to capture stories about true poverty and experience true poverty in another country. If we want to fight for a cause or a non-profit, a campaign, or an idea we believe in, we first have to tell the story behind it all. I know that by Living Below the Line just for a week, only 5 days, my mindset, my heart and my direction that I want to point arrows of justice towards, has changed. I will reflect more after a good night’s sleep. Congrats to the Global Poverty Project for their amazing dedication to fighting extreme poverty. 

Day 4…I can tell I’m starting to get used to the feeling of not eating. I ate two pieces of toast and felt full by the first bite! It’s interesting how after four days I’ve become used to this lifestyle. I hope I don’t just go back to gorging myself on chipotle veggie bowls and drinking mocha coconut lattes at starbucks. While they are DELICIOUS, is it really necessary to indulge myself in such things? Is depriving myself teaching me a better lesson than the enjoyment I get eating/drinking these consumer delights?  It’s a hard line…but I know that I’m going to be wary of how much money I spend on a weekly basis. I’m also going to spend time every day to pray for the poor and also pray for a creative idea that will help lift people out of poverty. Find a new way to provide jobs for the homeless or just a way to bring joy to a community that is need of it. 

Last summer I started planning an arts and music therapy rehabilitation center. Now that I’ve graduated, I think the dream can become a reality. Just need to take it one day at a time. 

Sacrificing your own happiness for something you love, shows character and how our hearts can be used in new capacities. Today, the third day of Live Below the Line definitely was the most challenging day so far. I was aware of hunger as I watched people around me devour deletable food. I heard my stomach ache for food. People for the first time tempted me with food and my weakness, a cup of rich roast coffee but I politely declined. I really want this week to be devoted to sacrifice and learning that through that, we grow and we allow ourselves to see the world differently.

I’m a very visual person and I FEEL deeply in situations. I am a dramatist and a storyteller and stories that grab hold of me, stay with me and provide insight into my thoughts and emotions. Last night I visualized a story when I was wide awake but almost dreaming. I saw a picture of me preparing to cook food for children in an internment camp and I ran out of food. I desperately looked around the surroundings trying to find any kind of food that would satisfy their empty bellies, so they could sleep peacefully. Any food that would bring comfort and joy. But I had ran out of money for that day and I had to choose which child to feed and which child would go hungry. As I sat in silence and prayed to choose the right thing to do, a sobering realization came. That this story is not just a visualization but a reality for millions of mothers across the globe. In that moment it was as if I had been that woman standing in poverty and calling out for anyone to provide support. They were my starving children and all I wanted to do was provide food to them like a good mother. 

In the study of Drama Therapy this is called “role-playing”, where an actor “the player” puts themselves in another person’s shoes so that they can explore what the participant is feeling and then the actor tries to find a solution to alleviate their pain in a creative way. The players act out issues fictionally, such as enacting a conflict or using a story as a metaphor for larger psychological complexes. It is utilizing metaphor through action, in which a set of behaviors embodies an archetypal role, for example, a hero, a nurturer, a mother. The player inhabits the imaginary, a shared reality in which they take on a role that is “like” them but “not” them. Through the archetype of the mother and with this metaphorical imagery, it allowed me the chance to examine the complex of a mother in poverty, in a low-stress and safe environment. 

The unique process of using this tool of drama therapy allows the participant (myself in this situation) to step into the narrative of an original story and create a shared experience and empathy. All it took, was one theatre technique and I was transported to a place where I started to understand sacrifice. The next step in drama therapy, is working with a group and offering solutions to how the conflict can be solved, and then together the players and the group members arrive at a larger understanding. It is the healing process of humanization. 

Drama therapy allows one to step into another world, step back out once they understand the situation, and then equips that person with a new perspective, in which they can better assess how to solve the problem. [If you are interested in learning more about Drama Therapy read The Rainbow of Desire or Theatre of the Oppressed by Augustus Boal] 

And now to come full circle: I think that the Live Below the Line challenge, is utilizing the role-playing technique of Drama therapy to help us participants gain a new perspective so that we can solve the global issue of extreme poverty. Through this I have become more aware of my selfishness and what I take for granted. I am conscious now that I need to remind myself to think of the poor and bring the 1.4 billion people living on less than $1.50 a day to the forefront of my mind, and to the battle lines of my own heart. Every moment I grow impatient or feel weary, I have to step outside my self-centeredness and advise myself that I am doing this to learn about the communities who live in poverty.

I am sacrificing happiness and my comfort, in order that I may understand how to serve the people who need it. The ones who wait for someone to show compassion and come by their side and support them. I know what it’s like to be loved unconditionally and to be comforted through the storms of this life. I know that there will always be food on the table for me to eat AND because of that it spurs me on to help people in need. There are always going to be challenging days and cynical people who laugh at the idea of “pretending to be poor”, but it takes strength stand up for what you believe in.  We can be the change we want to see in the world, but we need to have faith in our ability to do so.

I am living below the line, so that one day people won’t have to. 

If you want do donate to the cause: http://bit.ly/fkSVIo

Day Two of Live Below the line has definitely been challenging. I wasn’t feeling too good today and felt dizzy and lethargic. It’s shown me the importance of eating healthy balanced meals and how by limiting food from our diets it can cause us to spiral downward. Living below the line has thrown me off balance, and even though it is somewhat painful and has interfered with my activity (I slept 7 hours today in the afternoon…) I have been grateful through it all. Every time I wince at a headache, I try to remember my situation in light of the 1.4 billion people who experience this and worse. This isn’t forever. It’s day two of five and I can nurse myself back to health but people who live in poverty can’t do that. With our immune systems down we/they are at risk to diseases. But holding on to hope for a better tomorrow keeps me going. I’m learning with all this that compassion makes a difference. The word compassion means (with + Passion) = (com + passion).

I am living below the line, with passion. I am facing obstacles and negative feedback with passion. I am recognizing how blessed I truly am in my situation. It’s worth it and I am inspired to remain optimistic, just like communities around the world that do despite their conditions. I have compassion for all. 

First day of Live Below the Line! My meal had to be under $1.50 and I made it! It wasn’t easy though and I definitely cultivated new compassion for people who live in extreme poverty every day. Knowing that every time my stomach growled, 1.4 billion people were feeling the same pain but intensified. HUNGER. I believe someday we’ll be able to feed every mouth. That the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000  will be magnified and we as his workers will help feed the 1.4 billion people, with not only food but with justice and love.

 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

   When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

I wonder if we’re limiting our ability to help others by looking down at our five and two fish and saying, this isn’t enough to feed 5,000. This isn’t enough to feed 1.4 Billion people. What can I do?  What can I give?  If you can’t give money, lend compassion or lend hope to the people who suffer under the weight of hunger. If 1.4 billion people are waiting to be lifted out of poverty, aren’t there more than 1.4 billion people that have the strength to do so? 

I know just this week of giving up the luxury of food will make a difference. No matter how small this action may be, it will start a ripple and reverberate until the message hits someone else and they join the movement.

When the thousands who are living below the line realize that by doing these actions, we are empowering not only the poor but empowering ourselves to be humanitarians, that’s when the scale will tip. It’s the understanding that by living below the line, we are accepting ownership to be a leader in our community to guide people to understanding poverty. This is not just a challenge, but it is an act compelling us to rise to our potential and contribute our voices to the always growing success story of the end of global poverty. 

One day down, four to go. Hoping that I will be learning more about how to better serve the poor. 

Favorite meal of the day: Chopped potatoes & onions, with water combined in a skillet for healthy and nutritious hashbrowns! 

It’s sad to think as we grow older, we ignore our impulses to be creative as we try to stay within the lines.  When I was a child, I colored and painted outside the lines. I even painted my clothes (see photo). I tore out the pages from coloring books and used the whole page to create entire landscapes and design my own story. The truth is, at all ages we’re given tools whether it be a colored pencil, technology, or a talent AND we are all given a canvas, a coloring book page, a platform, or a stage, but it’s how we use the tools on the canvas that matters.

I encourage you to pick up your tool (whatever it may be at the moment) and use it for good and make a difference in the world. My hope is that as artists we all can combine our tools, and cover a giant canvas with hope, for the world to view and add to.

By living below the line, not within it, not above it, I think I will start to better understand how to be a change maker using creativity for a cause! 

I’m living under $1.50 a day, May 16th-20th. Support me please! http://bit.ly/fkSVIo