Happiness Does Not Consist in “How Much”

“If you believe strongly enough in yourself and God, and don’t spend all your energies on making, questing, or worrying about money, you will get what you need when you need it.” spoke John’s mother, Josepha. And, sure enough, despite an alcoholic husband, five children to feed, the family never went hungry. They found woods where natural foods offered themselves to the family, fresh and nourishing. Josepha never allowed money or the lack of it to determine her course, her feelings, her faith. “I live each day fully. Happiness is never dependent on how much I have, but what I do with what the little I have been given.”

Josepha discovered her inner wealth “from nature walks, flower gardens, and the silence of the woods. I found refuge in books, treasures in the public library brought the outside world into my dreary one.”

Years later, and now happily married to a man of modest means, Josepha exclaims: “My new husband and I often laugh at how rich we feel.”
(Adapted from Wisdom Women in the best seller, Money as Sacrament.)

Nine Things I Want My Neighbors to Know

1) Honor the money as gift. The amount is secondary. Know that it comes as gift. When you are conscious of this, your soul is alive in peace and contentment.

2) Shift your position from ego satisfaction to spirit satisfaction. Spirit doesn’t seek control, power, or symbols of wealth. It seeks Other.

3) Do what you love doing. Try never just to do it for the money!

4) The truth is always wanting to come up. By being spiritually aware, you will discover more of what enriches your soul. And then, like they say, it will set you free.

5) Yes, you can give without loving but you can’t love without giving.

6) We are not physical beings seeking some spiritual experience. We are already truly spiritual beings who happen to inhabit a physical dimension.

7) Celebrate the energy that comes from hearing and believing in God’s call to you

8) Know that when you render to Caesar the things that are his, you render to God everything since it all belongs to Him.

9) Care for yourself. Theilhard de Chardin advises that: “To the degree that I care for myself might be the degree in which I care for another. If there isn’t much love for the me inside, I diminish my care for those outside of me

Backyard Potting Soil

One day, Jim saved me from my backyard soil. He’d made a trip to Green Gardens Nursery, came home and breezily announced: “Honey, I bought some potting soil.”

I was furious. Why spend money on something we already had. I pointed out that our backyard consisted of an acre of potting soil. Of course, I didn’t mention an aching back, dirty fingernails, or a possible Florida heat stroke.

After breakfast, the next day, as I pulled out my purse for a day’s shopping. it finally hit me! One purpose of money is to save time and labor. Unlike some unfortunate neighbors, I wasn’t exactly called by God to dig in the dirt. Saving dollars on soil stemmed from some old-brain thinking, a time zone belonging to my parents or who knows, perhaps to some long-forgotten rural farmer living in me still wanting to wrestle with soil.

Now, thanks to my husband, I’m free to lay a few extra bills on a nursery counter for a luxury called potting soil. What will be next?” Jim and I both laugh over the switch. “Look, honey, clean fingernails!”