It’s Time to Redefine Rich

In the words of Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”  

What is your end-all be-all goal in life? Is it landing that dream job with a good salary? What about living in a mansion or having a luxurious car? Is it to be able to buy whatever you want, whenever you want it, to live a financially free life? 

These are widely accepted goals to have in life. You’re a big dreamer, you shoot for the stars. However, what do all of these goals have in common? Money. These are monetary goals. So many peoples’ end goal is to be rich, to live a lavish and extravagant life. Why is that so? What has made us such money hungry individuals? When did the reward of a hug or kind words get stomped on by the value of the dollar? 

Challenge Traditional Wealth

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, wealth is defined as, “abundance of valuable material possessions or resources.” Our world is constantly in our ear, whispering greedy thoughts to us. Your value is based on how large the sums are in your bank account. You need more money, more stuff, more success. More, more, more. 

I choose to challenge this idea, here and now; my life is rich, not because of my plentiful money or bountiful things, but because of my beating heart, the blood running through my veins, my eyes that can see the world and my ears that hear it. I am full of abundant, even overflowing, emotion. I am surrounded by people, friends and family, who love and cherish me as I am. Money could never buy me these things, and this is what makes me rich. 

The Abundance of Emotion

You don’t find lasting joy in things. At the end of your life, what will you think of: the copious things surrounding you, or the people you loved, who loved you, and who made life worth living? I’ll answer for you: it will be the people. 

Love is the most valuable currency in this world. Instead of raising up walls and defenses, love breaks them down and unites. The bonds between people are things that money could never create. You can’t buy friendship or the love of someone. If someone loves you because of the things you buy them, then they don’t love you, they love what your money can do for them. 

The wealth of love is so quiet that it’s often shadowed by the rowdiness of the dollar. The wealth of love means your mom knowing you more than anyone. It means your friends seeing you’re down and trying to make you laugh. It means your dad playing Barbies with you. It means this and so much more. The wealth of love is about seeing, knowing, and caring. It’s about gaining absolutely nothing more than cherishing and being cherished. 

Finding Wealth in Creativity

Within each of us, whether it’s deep or shallow, is a desire to create. Creating something is the most raw and beautiful way of saying, “This is who I am. This is what I made. Come see me.” This desire has been stifled in many of us unless it’s seen as monetarily valuable. 

People may think creating is limited to wielding a paintbrush or a pencil, but it’s so much more. Creating is writing words on a page: a poem, short story, an essay, a book. You can create music, or even compose a dance. It’s combining scraps of nothing into something. There’s a creator in all of us, and it’s important to remember that your inner artist doesn’t need to make you money. Just create for the sake of creating. 

The idea of creating something is innately emotional; it’s a release. There’s wealth in that, in being able to let go and feel. Art allows us to step into each other’s minds and see thoughts in a way that words could never recount. 

The simple joys; they exist. You just have to look:. 

• A walk with friends at sunset
• Feeling a song, deep, deep in your soul 
• The chime of their laughter (you know who)
• Discovering someone loves your favorite movie as well
• Laughing so hard that you cry
• Compliments from a child, because you know they mean it sincerely
• Getting home right as your playlist ends
• Lighting a candle after you clean
• Being carried inside after falling asleep in the car
• Feeling a good kind of exhaustion in your muscles after a day at the beach, in the waves and sun

Taking notice of these little joys is what will make your world so much brighter. Sometimes, it’s too overwhelming to always see the big picture. Each day, find something little that brightened your day. It could be the smile the cashier gave you, someone holding the door, or a rambunctious dog you passed by. It’s these small things that make life something worth being a part of, not just something you have to get through. It’s time to redefine what rich means to you.