It's all about security ...

I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money. 

~ Pablo Picasso

I recall a Peanuts comic in which Linus announced that when he grew up he wanted to be very successful, very famous and very humble. Successful, famous, humble. Charlie Brown just walked away muttering, "Good luck with that."

Living in the monastery for thirty years taught me how to live as a poor man ... with lots of money. I didn't have much in the way of cash, no personal bank account or credit card, no car of my own and such. On the other hand, I had incredible amounts of security -- great health insurance, a car available to me almost any time, a guaranteed roof over my head and three square meals a day, a graduate-level education, plenty of work I enjoyed and the freedom to arrange my own work schedule most of the time.

Not sure that I have a point here. Just that peace of mind does not depend on having a lot of money, but it sure is connected to how safe one feels and how much one feels in control of one's life. And we keep searching for the thing that will give us control -- money, weapons, power. None of that works. A wise and experienced nun told me once that she had come to realize that life was all about letting go. We live in a culture where life seems to be mostly about grabbing on.

Let go. Breathe. Smile.

All better?