All Tied Together

Today was a day off spent puttering around the house, leisurely accomplishing just a few tasks so I could claim to myself that I did something constructive. Laundry dishes and all those little things that build up when you work several days in a row and refuse to give them the attention they need.

There's always financial and economic chatter on the web. It's funny how one theme will be brought up in one area and spread to a dozen other sites each with a different viewpoint. Donna Freedman linked to some great sites and discussed a popular goal of many workers. She had a different viewpoint which I completely understand.

see her post here

It's the battle of the work yourself to the breaking point to collect a million versus the take it slower and enjoy the little things crowd. No, just kidding, there is no battle. We all have different lifestyles, philosophies, and circumstances.

The thing about today that was particularly interesting was the surprising moment when real life and virtual life collided. I had a pile of coupons to be clipped and sorted and a DVD, covered in a few layers of dust. It must have been a few months ago when I promised a friend I would watch it.

I've read one of Eckart Tolle's books but hadn't heard him speak before. Perhaps I wasn't in the mood or doing too much while I was listening. My night went like this for a while; clip a few coupons, zone out, snooze for a few minutes, then repeat. That is until I heard this:

"After ten years of struggle and stress and negativity finally you become a millionaire. Finally you've made it. It's pointless, you've been unhappy for ten years, you'll continue to be unhappy even with your millions and in the process of making your millions you've made many other people unhappy. And that's called success." From "Finding Your Life's Purpose" by Eckhart Tolle.

I'll stick with my simple pursuit of happiness while being as financially responsible as possible life. At this stage in the game it would be too much of a mad dash to the end to chase that much money. I'm not saying I would rather sleep on the beach and eat out of trash cans, it's just that I can live on a lot less than that and still reach happiness. Even today, washing dishes, talking with my children on the phone, clipping coupons, a simple dinner of beans and cornbread with my husband....I was happy.