Capacity to Love?

If we are concentrating on the HATE that we see around us, can we possibly maintain the capacity to truly LOVE?

A life goal of mine is to LOVE to such a huge amount that when I die, the words that people use to describe me will be words that describe the love I showed. Rather than spend a huge amount of time on the subject of love I'm spending some time thinking about the adversary of love, HATE.

If you are like me you can spot hate from a mile away. You have days of your life where all you see around you is hate. When you see the people around you, those driving, walking, standing in line with you, you see the hate they are putting out.  The 'Move out of my way' look, or the 'Me first' or the 'No bother to think about anyone else' hate. It may be in the form of a waving finger in the mirror, or an angry look.

Hate is easy to spot. Far to easy.

So back to the question, if we are concentrating on the on the hate that we see around us can we possibly maintain the capacity to truly Love?

A Couple Ways I Fund My Travel - Multiple Cruises Can't Be Wrong

I'm pretty sure that several times a year my friends and family hate me. I can picture them several times a year ticked off at the fact that my wife Crystal and I are off on another trip or cruise.

Multiple times a year we sneak away to the Caribbean, Europe or Alaska to enjoy life and experience new things. We enjoy the life that cruising provides. Food whenever you like, drinks, bars, changing destinations and activities galore.

My wife Crystal and son Dylan in Cozumel Mexico.

I believe that most people would put travel at the top of their "Dream List." I know that because we talk to a lot of people about travel. The thing I notice is that most people let their day-to-day life get in the way of this dream.

I believe most people think that traveling like we do is out of their reach. While we've developed a lifestyle that helps us fund our travel I want to share with you a couple practices that help us put travel within our reach.  Maybe it can help you start living a dream.

Get Frugal With a Purpose.  Frugal means be a bit of a cheapskate.  Here are a couple ways that we are frugal now, so we can travel later.

• Cutting Cable - Our cable, internet and phone package with Time Warner use to run us around $180 per month, ($2160 per year).  We've cut it down to $60 internet only and save $120 per month or $1440 a year!  With our budget shopping on travel that is either a full cruise or a significant part of one.
• Hate Our Climate - We hate the temperature in our house.  Year round.  It is too cold during the winter and too hot during the summer. The reason is, our hate of the temperature in our house allows us to LOVE the temperatures of the Caribbean later.  Over the years I have been a draft detective working to weather proof our house.  Weather proofing and keeping the thermostat under control leads to significant savings.  It costs on average about $120 per month in gas and electric for the 2,500 square foot or so we live in.  That includes the summer electric drain of our pool which adds around $140 in electric usage a year.
  
  Our gas and electric bills were $220 or more per month before our efficiency endeavors.  This quick $1200 in savings a year either another short cruise or part of a larger cruise.
• Entertainment on a Budget - Use your library! Ours has a huge selection of CDs and DVDs... and these things called books. So far the cost has been about $30 in late fees over 10 years. The savings is likely only $300 to $400 a year, but every bit helps.
• Volunteer and Stay Busy - I learned a valuable lesson when I was a teenager and it has served as a life lesson for me.  If working and making money I have less time to spend money. If family life allows you to, work more! Not only will you increase your revenue you will decrease expenses.  Family life won't let you work more?  Understandable.  Volunteer as a family! It is free family time that teaches you  valuable life lessons.  While you are serving others guess what you're not doing?  SPENDING MONEY!

Enough for now.  Happy travels.