“How to be Rich?”
What do those four words evoke in you?
Whenever we think about being rich, the automatic answer that comes to mind is financial richness, that is money in our possession.
Monetary richness is very important as it allows the freedom to live a life we have envisaged without worrying about bills, taxes and whether we can afford a vacation around the world.
But being rich is more than the money we possess or wish to have in our bank accounts. Don’t get me wrong, money is very important to many facets of life and we all work hard to afford the basics and luxuries for ourselves and our loved ones.
The pursuit of financial wealth at the detriment of all other aspects of our lives can make us very poor.
Being rich for me starts off with family and friends. Without siblings, parents, loving nieces, nephews and friends I would surely be a poorer man.
Empty the day becomes when I will lose a parent, and that one day will come. Till then enjoying my parents love and affection is something that is rich beyond comparison. Even though I live in the US and they in the UK I try and visit them as often as I can, but talk to them is something I do every week at least twice if not more.
A friend who you may not have seen in years, but when you meet and sit down for a chat, it’s as if you never were apart. The laughter and joy in the small talk, the cracking of jokes and just catching up is worth a million dollars.
Having a life partner to share life with, argue politics over and comfort one another is priceless.
Recently I read a report about how people in the Western world come home on a Friday after work, who then have no contact with another human being until they go back to work on Monday. Even if you had a million bucks sitting in the bank this kind of existence cannot be good for the body and soul.
My nieces and nephews give me great joy as I see them grow up to be independent, healthy humans with a vim for life and zest for laughing and smiling with me on Facetime and expressing their desire to come live with me when they are 10 years old.
For me richness also comes from food. Good home cooked and heart warming fayre. One of my favourites is British clotted cream, scones and strawberry jam. Once you’ve tried it there’s no going back.
The drinking of a cup of tea accompanied by a good book, where my imagination takes me to other worlds and adventures is joy exemplified in one of its purest forms.
Even watching a simple, “red sky at night, shepherd’s delight” kind of sunset shows how abundant one’s life can be as we breathe in a refreshing twilight air.
We can only live in the moment, we can only live for now. As the saying goes, “tomorrow may never come”, so today let’s experience the richness and abundance we have right here, right now.