I recently read an email from a friend of mine who was returning from a third world country. Something that she "said" struck me. She mentioned that she had lost her cell phone and felt that she was "once again" having to learn a lesson about "attachment".
It kept coming back to me and I couldn't help but wonder, "is that the lesson, or is it something else? Is attachment a bad thing?"
Maybe the lesson is about gratitude. Maybe we "lose" things because we need to be reminded to be thankful for what we have.
Think about it...all we hear about these days is "we need change", which implies that what we have is bad, or wrong, or broken. In many cases that may be true. But, it also takes away our focus on what is good, on what we do have, and distracts us from all that we have to be thankful for.
Take the "economic crisis" for example. This certainly represents an area that needs to be changed. But part of that change starts with us. One thing that is clear is that we apparently live in a world that cannot function without "credit". My boys and I were in Target the other day an my younger son asked if I would buy him something and let him "earn it" later. I said "I can't do that. I can't tell the cashier I want to buy it now and pay for it later. Hmmm...actually...we do it all of the time! Do we all want to have it now and earn it later? Some would say we simply want too much...and that is a bad thing. right?
I thought that was the answer, but then I talked to someone yesterday, and she asked me what "I want in life". Now, I am rarely at a loss for words, and would normally believe that I am very clear in my goals, etc. However, I found myself stammering as I answered this question. She said that "it's ok to want". I realized that this seemed to counter to this line of thinking. "Wanting is bad, right?" I felt a little confused.
Maybe we are all confused. Perhaps it is ok to want what we want in life. Instead of focusing on what we "need to change" or what we "don't have", we should be clear in the kind of life we want to live, what our dreams are, what our purpose is, and what makes us happy and fulfilled. Maybe if we were all clear in what we really want, gave ourselves permission to, and gave ourselves credit for our progress we've made and were grateful for the abundance that we do have, we wouldn't want as much "stuff".
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1 comment:
We definitely are living in the age of immediate gratification. Credit cards are a perfect example.
We are a confused society. We need to figure out who it is we need to thank for where we are at in our lives and what we already have. For some of us, that is faith based. It is for me. But even with a strong faith, we can lose our way in this materialistic world. We need to set priorities.
Don't get me wrong, there are things that I want that I don't need. What I have learned is that I need not to feel I have to have it now and I need to know that it is something that if I get, to be grateful for it and if I don't, I didn't need to have it.
I liked this article very much and there is so much more that could be discussed on this topic.
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