“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” – Henry David Thoreau
“In the new good life, the point is not to have the most toys, but the most joys.” – John Robbins
I was thumbing through a gourmet cookbook the other day, and the author recommended visiting farm stores to procure the most flavorful, just-picked ingredients.
I glanced out at my garden and felt wealthy.
Here we are harvesting fresh herbs, greens, and eggs every day just a few feet from our back door. The early spring sunshine probably deserves more credit than I do for all of this abundance. But I’ve invested plenty of sweat and love into that soil over the years, and I built something that feels very much like wealth.
When I hear the word wealth, I usually think of stock portfolios, IRAs, and 401Ks – the green stuff.
But when I think about what makes me feel wealthy, my mind jumps to other green stuff: my garden, city parks, wide open spaces, and the neighborhood fig tree that gives and gives and gives.
I also think of my close, connected neighborhood; my friends; and walking and riding my bike every day. I think of my kids and our unhurried mornings reading books, watching snails, and counting spiders’ legs.
Wealth is usually defined as an “abundance of items of economic value or material possessions.” But I wonder if it’s time for us to redefine wealth, at least in our own lives.
I’m not knocking savings accounts, retirement plans, or consumer goods. These things are important; they’re just not the whole story.
When we reflect on what makes us feel wealthy, we expand beyond our culture’s emphasis on property, assets, and commodities. We might think about good health, breathing clean air, living in a safe neighborhood, and having access to fresh produce. We might think about having more time.
And by redefining wealth for ourselves, we can ensure that we’re building the kind of lives and communities that make us feel wealthy. They might look a lot different than the ones we see on advertisements and on TV.
[clickToTweet tweet=”We can build lives and communities that make us feel wealthy. #gardens #greenspace” quote=”We can build lives and communities that make us feel wealthy.” theme=”style1″]
If you liked this post, you may enjoy these:
- Can Money Buy Happiness?
- Making Economic Exchange a Loving Human Interaction
- Ditch the Life Coach and Do the Daily Chores
- Should Towns Print Their Own Cash?
What makes you feel wealthy? I’d love to hear about it in the comments section.
I feel blessed that I have always had excellent health and my grown children and little granddaughter are healthy too. I am also so grateful that I don’t need a lot to be happy and can find joy with myself, my dog, my family and friends. Contentment and joy come from within and I am happy I realize that fact.
I discovered so many great quotes about the connection between health and wealth when I was writing this post, like this by Ghandi: “It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.”
Living in the moment, focused attention on the task or person at hand…..caring for creation….all we have is the present…..never the past, never the future, only the new….to care and love.
Caring for creation……mindfulness…
So true. Mindfulness is probably the only true path to wealth.
Excellent post (as always!
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Although my material wealth was stripped from my life by a variety of catastrophes, I’m rebuilding a life that feels wealthy – less possessions, more garden area – less expenses, more time to sit and dream or write – –
Before my time of loss, I read two things that made a deep impact on me and had already started to downsize and search for ways to work less/enjoy more before Life hurried me along the journey –
One was, “In study after study of aboriginal tribes, it has been seen that the more ‘civilized’ or successful a society becomes, (by Western Standards) the less leisure time the individual has and the less contented members of the tribe are.”
The other was from a study done on what motivated employees – “Employees need to earn enough to take financial worry off the table, but anything past that does not improve productivity or creativity’ –
Thanks for sharing your story and sources of inspiration, Tamrah Jo. I was shocked in college when I read the book “Nisa,” an ethnography about the !Kung San of the Kalihari, and learned that they had abundant leisure time. And I too am fascinated by studies about what motivates people. I loved the book “Drive” on this subject by Daniel Pink.
I think a speech given to the RSA on the Drive subject was the one I was thinking of!
Lovely and true, as always.
My wealth is, as you so cogently point out, the abundance of natural life and human connections around me. I’d have to add a great library, time for creativity, and freedom to pursue paths of meaning.
Yes to all three! I feel wealthy every time I step into our wonderful library.
health, family, supper on the table (even as simple as soup), the outdoors as my backyard, an afternoon with my kiddos, friends coming over, writing, freedom to make choices
Great post Abby, thank you. And such a good reminder of what’s important as I sift through 4 years of stuff upon stuff to decide what to bring with us on our next journey and what to get rid of … my goodwill pottery collection and all the blankets I’ve ever owned suddenly don’t seem so important.
I live in Yuma, AZ, not a great place for gardening, but I think a great deal. Sitting on the front porch one morning, enjoying the blue sky, white clouds and chirping birds, I thought about ownership. No one owns the things that make me feel good, they are just there. That made me feel wealthy.