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| papa and maya |
This all started with my desire for more pictures of Maya and I together. I dressed her up in a dress and scarf she got as a birthday present. Everyone knows I love Joe Fresh so she got lots of pretty clothes from there when she turned 2. Maya also gets giant boxes of gorgeous hand-me-down clothes every 4-6 months from her cousin Lauren. Stunning, lightly used clothes with everything a child could possibly need and want. And more hand-me-down clothes & presents from friends & family. But it wasn't enough for me. I needed more. I have loved shopping at Joe Fresh and I've been sifting through their clearance rack at least twice a week. Countless times I have felt annoyed that I couldn't buy something perfect because we couldn't afford to. My middle class consumer brain didn't think for a moment about where those clothes came from and the tired hands that made them; until that building in Bangladesh collapsed. And then I started to think about all the terrible things that have happened lately and was starting to wonder why and what all of this meant for humanity and the evolution of our consciousness. Here's what I've realised - We
are sadly at a point in our evolution where bad stuff needs to happen in
order for us to wake up, think and evolve. We have become so comfortably numb in order to accommodate our never ending hunger to consume. Until that building collapsed in
Bangladesh I did not for one second question where my clothes came from
and who was being exploited. I knew it in the back of my mind (sweatshops, bad, tuck away deep thoughts, continue being indifferent, don't evolve) but I
never really thought about it deeply. Pretty much all I cared about
was my kid getting to wear cute Joe Fresh clothes and obsessing over
wanting to buy more clothes. It wasn't until all those people died that I
was shocked into consciousness and took the time to THINK. I don't know what this realization means but
I'm putting it out there with the hopes that bad shit doesn't need to
happen in order for me/us to realise something and EVOLVE. I need to
create a space in my life where I can dedicate more time/thought/action
to improve the lives of others. We are not separate. We are all in this together. This is our collective reality.
