It was just a couple of years ago where the teaching of "The Secret" was released and part of that movement was all about perspective. Perspective is EVERYTHING especially if you are living in Buenos Aires. This is a country where the prices are going up weekly. If one develops a negative perspective to things, pretty soon all that you'll start to see or take notice of is signs on stores indicating weekly inflation. You'll start to notice in cafés that the price is going up and the quality is going down. Every where you'll walk, that's all you'll start to see.
However in Buenos Aires if you choose to have a positive perspective, it will make all the difference in your stay. You'll start to stumble upon places that offer you a great exchange rate. Suddenly your eyes will spot signs with prices with special discounts that are lower than anything you've seen. Destiny will happen and you'll find yourself meeting people and coming into their lives just when they needed it or perhaps you needed it.
Choosing my perspective early on was crucial to my survival, especially when I landed in the country for the third time and all of a sudden things changed rapidly and Argentina soon started to become Argenzuela. For those of you who don't understand.......Venezuela is run by a dictatorship. Argentina was more of a democracy but during my third trip things started to spiral out of control and tension filled the air as Argentina started to resemble somewhat of a facist state. Thus the term "Argenzuela" was born....
During all the madness, I got into "The Hunger Games" trilogy and began following the adventures of Katniss Everdeen. There was one portion in the book that stuck out in my mind. In the first book, there was a point where Katniss cannot find water and she starts crying out for water. She knows that the people who control the games can gift here with water that sponsors have bought for her but her cries go unheard. Gifts fall out of the sky in metal boxes attached to a parachute.
Slowly she begins crawling on the ground dehydrated feeling fated to die of thirst. It is then that a thought runs through her head that maybe the reason why she hasn't been given water is because she's almost found it. In short, Katniss eventually finds a life giving water source a short while later. And like Katniss, I'm beginning to realize that when I don't get given what I ask for, there is a reason for it. It is because God has already planted what I need within me and does not need to drop something out of the sky.
Like most people who have made a huge life change (especially to another country), the decision took a huge hit on me financially. There are endless rewards that I have reaped and many things I have gained that money cannot buy and there is no regret in my mind to leave the rat race and embrace the great adventure. But there was still the question of financial security and I had to get used to a change in lifestyle and the way I spend and how I think about money.
The weird phenomenon is that ever since I've started coming to Buenos Aires, every single thing I ever wanted I needed would come to me one way or another. I am talking about career, relationships, success with everything I do and discounts would happen on anything I ever needed when I needed it. Finances was the only area that hadn't been settled at it felt like there was a reason God was touching every as area in my life except this one. I knew there was a lesson in this but I didn't know what.
One fine day while sitting in a cafe, it hit me what God was trying to tell me by bringing favor and momentum into every single other area in my life except this one. You see, if God is big enough to remember something as little as a discount in a grocery store, providing supportive friendships, an unprecedented level of success on this blogsite, then God certainly hasn't forgotten an issue as big as my financial situation.
The very next day after my mini revelation in the café, I was taking a stroll through another neighbourhood when out of the blue I get a phone call from someone wanting advice on buying a tablet. Electronics are extremely expensive here.....an ipod touch that costs $200 in North American would cost at least $400 here. Every single time I mention prices of electronics in North America the jaws of my friends always hits the floor at tremendous speed.
Anyway this person was planning to scan various electronics stores for the product in question. She had phoned me for advice unbeknownst to her that had an ipad in my possession in mint condition. I told her that I would sell it to her at a fair price similar to what she would be paying in North America. This time it was MY jaw that was hitting the floor at tremendous speed.
The sale of this piece of electronics blessed both parties tremendously and propelled me forward in leaps and bounds financially. Not only that, within the next week two other totally different sources of income fell onto my lap.
I was at a place where money-wise things were getting thin, like Katniss Everdeen scrambling to find water and calling out to the game makers for H2O. Like Katniss, I don't always get what I want when I want it in the form that I want it to come in but I am learning that when the skies are shut, it is because water is nearby....
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