And the Challenge goes on....

I've been a bad blogger. 12 days without a post is like sacralidge...but I assure you, I've been drinking strictly Fair Trade coffees. The 2011 Fair Trade Manitoba One Month Challenge has drawn to a close...I've made it for another year! Time for a little reflection.

As I said in the begininng, participating in the Challenge wouldn't be hard for me. I've been going fair trade (at least in my coffee purchases) for a couple of year now. My work place, the progressive place that it is, has too. For me, taking the Challenge every year is more about taking some time to be mindful of the intentions of the fair trade movement. It's an opportunity to think about the power of our daily choices.

You know, we get so wrapped up in our own lives, the daily struggles, the stresses, the noise, that sometimes we just don't have the energy to think about the rest of the world....much less the way we think the world ought to be. But in those quiet moments or when you're inescapably confronted with the trials and tribulations of other people, we sometime realize how lucky we are. The people who live in the countries who grow and provide our coffee are there while we are here by some cosmic twist of fate. I didn't pick my parents, and the person who grew the coffee that I'm drinking right now didn't either. Yet, those "decisions" dramatically impact the quality of life that each of us experience.

If spending a few extra dollars on the pound of coffee I buy every couple of weeks helps to improve that fellow human being's quality of life while taking nothing...seriously NOTHING from my quality of life, then why wouldn't I make that choice.

Yes this is a small thing, however time and time again it is proven that it is the small things, the little choices we make over time that define our futures. Just look at the power of compound interest. If, when you were born, you put $5 dollars away a week and invested it and you earned about 8% per year on your investments. How much do you thing you'd have by the time you retire at 65? Well your investments would have cost you only $16,900 thoughout your life....but how much do you think you'd have? $50,000? $100,000? Try over $577,000. Now don't you wish your parents would have known that when you were born?

This compounding effect work for social investments as well. That extra income the coffee producer makes (that extra few bucks I pay per pound) gets turned into tuition payments for their children. Who then get a good education and can get better paying jobs, which means that they have more to spend in their communities, which streghtens the local economy, which ensures that more children can get a good education, which...well you get it. On and on that little investment gets compounded.

Ponder the power of small things as you drink your next cup of coffee.

See ya next year.