Explore Your World

I traveled around for work a lot in my early thirties, and the more i traveled, the more I noticed that, while different cities had their nice points, they mostly all had their obvious drawbacks as well.
That the quality of life wasn't necessarily attributable to living in a nice place.

Recently, I read a quote -  "Instead Of Wondering When Your Next Vacation Is, Maybe You Ought To Set Up A Life You Don’t Need To Escape From."

http://travelwithashley.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/photo.jpg

Explore your city, find the tea shop, the spice shop, the bike shop.

Not the one run out of delaware, but the one run by the guy down the road.

Go to a grocer, the local guy who buys from the local growers, people he knows by name from farms he's been to.

You'll find theyre friendly, engaged, and provide good quality food at great prices.
They do so because they care, because it's THEIR business. Theyre not just earning a paycheck and helping some guy in costa rica buy a new boat.  They're earning a livng for themselves and their families.  And the money they earn goes back into your community - buying backpacks for his their daughters, a baseball for his son, a bike for his wife.

These people are your neighbors.

Look at where you spend your money and pay attention to where the money goes.
Far too often, you'll realize that the profits are leaving your community - perhaps buying new bmw's for some fellows kids - and the workers are paid minimum wage.  You may see why paying a bit more to buy local is actually a better deal.

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