Tough times

I'm feeling a little weepy at the moment.

I have a blog friend, Ari, whose blog I've been reading for quite a while now. Life has not been kind to her for over a year - since she got laid off from her job.

Ari did everything right. When she was working, she built a nest egg against the day she might need it. It didn't last long. She's worked temp jobs and day labor and every once in a while she'd get some editing work for various websites. But as I learned when my own husband was laid off from his job - you cannot budget on such odd jobs. You don't know when you'll work and you don't know when you'll get paid. Eventually, everything but the absolute necessities (and sometimes not even those) stops getting paid.

The phone rings and you hate to answer it because odds are that it's some collection agency or the electric company threatening to shut you down - but you answer anyway because it might be one of those jobs you crippled your hands filling out thousands of applications for.

It's very depressing and scary and sad. And unless you've been in those shoes, you don't know how hard it is on your health and self-esteem and your ability to get up and start over every day.

There are a few people who chip in to help make sure Ari gets some basic foodstuffs so she can eat - but she recently found out that one of the reasons she's been so sick lately is that she is gluten-intolerant. Which lets out a lot of the food that she's been eating because it's so inexpensive. No more pasta. No more bread. The gluten-free versions are expensive.

So here we are. The dunning calls are becoming unbearable. The mailbox is full of threats. She's having to sell what possessions she still has and has to leave her home. Things are looking very grim indeed.

So I'm asking, on behalf of someone who needs help but doesn't like asking for it... Can you spare a few dollars? Would you visit her website and click on her "donate" button (which she installed at the suggestion of another reader but did so reluctantly)? At this point, I think every little bit helps. Let's be the knot in the end of her rope - so she can hang on to hope another day.

Thanks. And if the spirit moves you, pass this on. Ari is special. She has a lot to offer the world, if she could just get the chance.