Start Quote
Take a deep breath.
Relax.
Be open.
For the next week, we're going to think about money.
The love of it.
The lack of it.
How we accumulate, spend, save, and squander it,
lust for it, worship it, worry about it, work for it.
Like success, money is an emotional volatile issue
for most women.
It's probably the most complicated relationship we have
- and the one that most controls our lives because we let it.
"Our lives are hell not because money is so important to us,
but because it is not important enough,"
insists Jacob Needleman, author of the illuminating meditation
If money were more important to us,
we would seek to understand its impact and
how it influences every aspect of our lives...
"Think of our relationship to nature, to ideas, to pleasure,"
he challenges us.
"Think of our sense of self-identity and self-respect;
think of where we live and with what things we surround ourselves;
think of all our impulses to help others or serve a larger cause;
where we go, how we travel, with whom we associate
- or just think of what you were doing yesterday,
or what you will be doing tomorrow, or in an hour.
The money factor is there,
wrapped around or lodged inside everything.
Think of what you want or what you dream of,
for now, or next year, or for the rest of your life.
It will take money, a certain, definite amount."...
One of the things we probably don't realize is
how hypocritical we are about money.
We want it but we don't want to appear as if we do;
we fear and desire it in the same heartbeat.
Professor Needleman believes that money is a force we must face
in the late twentieth century in much the same way
sex was an issue for previous generations.
What is undeniable is that money is the raw material
from which we build our lives, whether we like it or not.
One of our difficulties is that too often we confuse
spiritual yearnings with material wants.
For instance, you long for serenity.
You assume that serenity is a resident comma
in your checking account balance.
And while being able to pay your bills easily
- a practical definition of serenity -
often comes with a fatter paycheck,
the comma requires an expenditure of more
time, creative energy, and emotion.
The redistribution of your life force means subtracting it
from the seemingly "disposable" segments of your life
- family time, personal pursuits,
spiritual growth, rest, and recreation -
and moving it to your work allotment.
More work, more pay, more stress.
More stress, less serenity,
no matter how much money you're earning.
In becoming experts at quantity instead of quality,
we rob our souls of Real Life's richness.
In order to find balance between the
two spheres that pull us in opposite directions
- material and spiritual -
Jacob Needleman suggests we consider the
practical advice in the ancient admonishment
"Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's
and unto God that which is God's."
"The entire problem of life in contemporary culture
can be defined as the challenge to understand that saying of Jesus,"
Neddleman writes.
"It is not so simple; in fact, it is immensely difficult.
It requires that we begin to understand
what in ourselves belongs to the transcendent realm
and what to the material realm.
And then to give to each what is due to each
- no more and no less.
This is what it means to be human."
End Quote
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Gratitude Journal
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1) Being able to go to the Halo ceremony tonight.
2) I'm so grateful for Valley Children's and the wonderful staff we have grown to know and love.
3) In -N - Out. Shelby's favorite meal.
4) Having a little time to go on a creative excursion, and finding cute little inspirations.
5) Therapy. I'm so grateful for Therapy.
