So many questions tear us apart, tear us down and focus on our differences. Often times, it is hard to find that common ground to stand together on. I found this especially true in the recent economic and political environment in this country. Every week we will take one question and answer it independently. Off the cuff, no research, just down and dirty for each of us. Our hopes is that 1) you will find as we have, that you are not alone and 2) we can come together even on some “hot topics” and find that common ground that we need to overcome.

This weeks question: What is the one thing you could not live without? (Notice this is a thing, not a person.)

Jeanette I thought really hard about this question because I feel there are some basic necessities that all humans need to survive… Food, Clothing, some type of shelter. As I dug deep into my past where I lived on my own as a teenager .. where I worked part-time, went to high school, where the shelter was questionable, food was scarce, and clothing was neither clean nor new and yet I can not say that I would chose any those items to live without. I thought for a minute about family being the thing I couldn’t live without and yet again. Through some of the hardest times in my life; family may have been somewhat of a support but not something that I wouldn’t of survived without. So, it all boiled down to this simple yet beautiful answer.

FAITH….faith that God would carry me through, Faith in my ability to survive the most horrific circumstances, faith that the pain was temporary, faith that my life would be better due to these struggles.
Hope This was an easy one for me. I’ve had the same answer since I was a child. MUSIC.

We moved around so much, I’ve counted 18 moves in my life now, that I always said I knew where my home was by where my stereo was. What makes this answer so surprising if I stop to think about it is that there was really never music in my house growing up. I remember clearly my 6th grade year coming home and telling my dad I had hear the most amazing song, it was Whitney Houston’s Greatest Love of All. His response, “no, your greatest love should be God.” Par for the course with my ultra conservative, missionary parents, but despite it all, music is what I could not live without.
CJ My first response is my phone. Ugh, how I dislike that about myself, but its true non-the-less. My best friends are my sisters and my parents, who all live several states away. I either talk to or text at least one of them daily. Without my phone I would no longer have a selection of people to use as sounding boards for thinking through my problems out loud, my poor husband would be stuck with the job on a fulltime basis. A therapist would be a must have as all of mine would no longer be readily available.
Maria Tweezers. Hair removal for me is a must! I keep one in each bathroom, one in each car, and one in my office. I am a very visual person so keeping up with a feminine appearance is important. It is scary for me to look in the mirror and see dark, thick chin hair, hair between the eyebrows or above the lips.