Sitting in a courtyard café yesterday, while eating a post-gym salad with a sweetheart, I was feeling particularly grateful for the goodness in my life. The sunny day, love, health, beets, lettuce, carrots, corn, the sheer abundance of beauty, and California produce…
The conversation went: Me: “I am so glad we are rich.” S-H: “Money can’t buy happiness…” Me: “But it sure can buy a nice salad!”
Wealth, of course, is relative. My bank account is pretty darned modest, in fact, it is most often miniscule. What I’m really talking about here is cultivating an awareness of the gifts of life. This awareness is itself a form of grace.
Reading today’s news – flooding in Tennessee, war, poverty, oil spills, the anniversary of the Kent State shootings – leaves me aware of my choices. I can choose to focus on despair, or I can remember wealth, grace, privilege, and joy. When I go with the latter constellation, I am filled with a sense of greater autonomy. Rather than feeling helpless in the face of pain and greed, I can look at my resources and take action. I can choose, again, to serve food to the hungry today, to scrub the giant pots and share a joke with someone who sleeps on a city sidewalk. I can look at my bank account and see if there is something to spare for the Red Cross, or to send to Joshua Landtroop’s children. I can also simply remember to feel grateful for all that I have.
My life is filled with a wealth of good things and I feel extremely blessed. What makes you feel wealthy? What are you grateful for today? How will you choose to share this wealth?
Keep the flow of life’s goodness moving. Pass it on.