Life & Community | Thrive Detroit

30Dec 2019 by Martti Peoples

The Life of a Traveler

By Martti C. Peeples The year was 2014. I had spent the weekend at Oprah Winfrey’s “Live Your Best Life” tour. Oprah had an exercise in the booklet we received. One of the exercises was called “Capture your new vision.” This is part of what I wrote: “I want to start preparing now to overcome my fear of leaving my current job and home and walking into my next Chapter.” By February 2016, I had resigned from my job and was venturing out into the travel business. Now, how did I get here? Well, between 2014 and 2016, a traveler started working at my job. This person was mentioning how much money he was making doing the same exact thing I was doing, yet making twice the amount. Let’s just…

30Dec 2019 by majallen

Think ‘Bout It

Life Coaching

By Majallen Cespedes Hey guys! It’s been a while since I've last submitted an article, but today I'm going to talk about something that’s had a direct, positive impact on my life. I want to share this knowledge and these understandings with you all in hopes of helping anyone reading this to achieve their most high sense of self and peaceful existence. Life is hard. No doubt. As we’re all growing, maturing, and experiencing transitions in our life like graduating from high school, we’re starting to get a sense of what it’s like to be an adult: drifting away from those you thought you’d know forever, rekindling old friendships because you’re now more mature, heartbreaks and relationships, struggling with managing your money or struggling because you’re trying to make some…

30Dec 2019 by sara

On Faith and Housing Justice

Homelessness, Inequity, Life & Community, Poverty

By Sara Constantakis, Thrive Detroit Copyeditor I would like to believe that I am a person who has always been concerned with justice. Throughout most of my adult life, I have volunteered for organizations that help people -- teaching reading to children and adults, or raising money for organizations that fight diseases -- but I don’t know if, at the time, I ever thought of those activities as justice work. This past November, I was asked to give a reflection at my church on the role of justice in my life. As I was putting together my reflection, I realized that it has been through my experience with Unitarian Universalism that I have learned the most about what justice means, the different types of justice, and how justice plays out…

30Dec 2019 by sajjiah

The Monthly JOW: Thoughts Are Things and Words Are Spells

Life & Community, Life Coaching

By Sajjiah Parker Thoughts Are Things and Words Are Spells Yes, thoughts are things and words are spells, and both our thoughts and our words have creative power--the power to create a vivid, colorful masterpiece of our dreams, visions, and goals, as well as the power to cause mass destruction to our hopes and dreams. Now, also consider the fact that we are thinking beings, thinking incessantly, all day, every day. In fact, most of the research I have explored on the subject suggests that the average person has 12,000 to 50,000 thoughts a day! Think about that--possibly as many as 50,000 thoughts a day! With so many thoughts, ask yourself: what are the true contents of your thoughts, and the words you are speaking to yourself? What predominates your…

30Dec 2019 by Ina Fernandez

It’s Never Too Early to Save for Retirement… Truly!

Finance, Lifestyle

Writer, Ina Fernandez, CPA A 2018 report by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies* made me sit up and take notice. It found that the median savings for people in their sixties, including equity in their homes, was $172,000. That seems like a lot of money until you divide it by the 20 years that most are likely to live beyond retirement. That calculates to $8600 per year, hardly enough to supplement the $17,000 per year from social security that the average retiree is likely to get, and way, way below what most will need to cover expenses in their retirement. So, with pensions now as rare as landlines, we need to start saving for retirement early, as soon as our first job. If we put away small sums that…

22Dec 2019 by Tash Moore

Next Time, Let’s Get Lunch on Me

Business, Enterprise, Homelessness, Poverty, Stories

Writer, Tash Moore Westlake is a long way from Oak Park, Michigan. It's a neighborhood that skirts downtown Los Angeles and has become home to La Bodega. The concept is the brick-and-mortar home base of LaRayia Gaston's vegan cafe and shop, as well as Lunch on Me. Gaston, originally from New York, founded Lunch on Me, a pop-up that serves the homeless throughout Skid Row, Watts, Venice, Compton, and lately MacArthur Park. Through partnerships and sponsorships with big names like Whole Foods and BuzzFeed, LaRayia--alongside President, Venus--has been able to provide healthy, affordable meals to locals of all stripes. I was introduced to Lunch on Me through a pop-up in Detroit last winter, right before the polar vortex froze SE Michigan to a virtual standstill. I met Venus, ever enthusiastic,…