A Rant Before Thanksgiving

Lately I've had spiritual things on my mind and my posts have been pretty inspirational due to that. So I'm warning you that today I'm taking a turn.

It feels that everything goes back to my brother, but as my mom has said, "I never want to go back to who I was on October 9th." Since Andrew passed I've been thinking 'What is the point of the daily struggle?' I'm talking about the day to day small things like going to work, coming home, paying bills, and all the humdrum of life. What's the point of all of that when I know what the most important things are in life? Family and the gospel. As I've been pondering this, I think God cares about what we dedicate our life to…and I think He'd like us to go through out our day and still be able to remember Him and do as He would do amidst trials and even the ordinary days of life. 

That being said, since I have found that temporal things do matter, I wanted to talk about Obamacare. Yes, that's what all this was leading up to. I've always been interested in politics and I've always had an opinion, whether shared or not. I want people to see how it's directly affecting my life. 

I am a single 25 year old woman. I will be 26 in January. Ding ding ding…I'm on my mom's insurance until that point. I have a job as a special needs teacher for a private school. Yes, I got my degree and I'm putting it to use. But I work 29.5 hours per week, therefore I do not receive benefits with my "part time" job. I need to figure out something fast and it's weighing on my mind. I could go the route of just not caring about the fines and just go with out insurance.

Oh wait…yeah…I have Type 1 Diabetes.

Something I couldn't have prevented with diet and exercise, just to debunk any myths about that. I can't just take the penalty and hope for the best on my health. I need quarterly check ups, yearly eye exams, prescriptions, and insulin pump supplies. It would be very costly with out insurance, and already is WITH insurance.

More and more businesses are cutting back hours so they won't have to provide insurance. More and more jobs are less likely to have benefit options. It's all because of the "affordable care act". I'm sure there are more out there who's job options have been limited because of Obamacare. There are a lot more people who work two part time jobs with no benefits to make ends meet. It's "helping" those who don't have employment but hurting those who do. The job market is suffering because of this tax, because it is a tax, to help those who are NOT working to get coverage. Obamacare: "No job required!"

So why shouldn't I just get Obamacare? Are you kidding me!?! Have you seen the glitches in the website?? You know why? They're trying to cover up the cost. I'm opting out. If I don't have to get it, I won't. All in all, the federal government shouldn't have any say over my health and the cost of it.

Now I'm in a pickle. It's either seek new employment, or pay out of pocket for individual insurance.

It'll all come to pass too soon…

Just being me,
Arica

Waiting

Before I even start this…I want everyone to know that I did not come up with this  entire analogy, but I did come up with a portion. I had to share it though, people need to know about it.

I went to a CORN MAZE last Saturday. I've been wanting to go for months, and my good friend made it happen per my request. We got a group of seven people to go through the maze together. It was the official Amazing Maize Maze. I like this one because it's not just, go in and try and find your way out, they have little stops along the way that allow you to gain map pieces so you can eventually lead yourself back out of the maze. My family used to go every couple years and got way into it. My goal is always to complete the map, even if I could get out of the maze with out all of the pieces, I love finding all of the mail boxes and having a complete map at the end.

My group came up to the beginning of the maze and there was a guide there to instruct us on the rules and our objective. He said, "No running, no smoking, and don't cut through the corn. Your objective, get out." He handed us a map that was essentially blank, but had spaces for twelve squares. My friend compared this to the pre-mortal life: we're given instructions before we come to this earth, some of which we forget, but we are given the commandments to follow. We're also given a way to come back to the start, but we need to live our lives to find out where we've been and where we need to go. The map pieces could be a number of things: our scriptures, patriarchal blessing, or counsel of the prophets.

We entered the corn maze, which is the a symbol of the world or our earthly journey. We were given a flag to communicate with people in the tower above (the maze master). They could see the entire maze and we'd wave the flag up and down or side to side to indicate that we needed help. This was compared to prayer and receiving answers to those prayers. The point is, we had to ask for the help.  As we went along we also could see kernels of knowledge, which tell you a little history of the area. I would liken that to personal revelation, where you get those "aha" moments in your life. We also walked around and searched for each map piece, as a group or "family".

At one point we were trying to get the last couple map pieces and we sought guidance from a maze volunteer (who could be your bishop, the prophet..etc.) and he told me to go down a certain path. I hurried and told my group, but not all of them followed me. We got separated. Sometimes in life we are going to be separated for some time from our family members. The four of us that followed the  path suggested, finished faster (1:07) and had a little old man write down our time. It was like coming to the gates of the heaven. We crossed the bridge and headed to our destination.

We had to wait fifteen minutes for the rest of our group. It was an interesting concept to me, to wait. I thought about Andrew, as I often do, more often then I might say. I sometimes think I talk about him too much. I don't want people to get tired of it quickly. But I did think of him. I thought of Andrew….and how he finished the corn maze before me…and now he has to wait on me. Both sides must wait. Being on the side waiting for the others who were behind us…it kind of let me know that he's okay, and I should be okay too. He's just waiting, like me.

Then the other half of our group rejoined us and after some bantering back and forth, we all laughed and went to lunch.

I know when I come over that bridge it will be even more exciting and joyous. And I'm sure Andrew and Dad will say, "We've been waiting!"

My corn maze family! They're awesome!

I love you,
Arica