Today I encountered a woman sitting
in first class who was a little short and snappy to put it mildly. I really
wanted to be understanding and accommodating.
I had to say to myself that her behavior had nothing to do with me
personally. I could take it personally or not, that was my choice. I chose not
to. The truth is I had no way of knowing whether it was me she was irritated
with or something else. I would have been making it up had I took it
personally. Instead I made up a different story. I posed a thought to myself
“suppose she is a store clerk and she has encountered wealthy people and the
wealthy people she has encountered have been abrupt and abrasive?” So perhaps
this is how she views what wealth looks like. If this is how she views it to
look like and if her upgrade has given the opportunity for her
to experience something she may have otherwise
not been able to experience, who am to take that away from her? All this has
lead me to a deeper exploration of how I view wealth. What are my perceptions
of wealth and what it means to be wealthy? Truthfully what I learned in my
formative years about wealth was from watching soap operas. Not a very good
example. This has influenced many of my key decisions and has been the
underlying factor in my creating plenty of opportunities to live an over
extended life. I view my favorite character Mrs. Chandler from “One Life to
Live” as my ideal. I internalized her drunken crass behavior, cunning character
and non-working persona who had the ability to travel the world as wealthy. I
have embodied many of her attributes. I have spent many days drinking and
entertaining, I have shopped and traveled the world and I have work, just
enough to work so that I can have an income while looking like I have the life
of leisure and I used to be very cunning and vindictive. I had at one time
thought this was what wealth looked like. Did I do this intentionally? No. I
wasn’t conscious any more than the woman with whom I had the interaction with
may be conscious. With self-introspection and personal journey work I have the
opportunity to reflect on me and see why I either do or have done many things.
This work that I thought might be selfish has turned out to be self-fulfilling
and has connected me to my fellow wo/man more deeply. Now instead of
recognizing the differences I look for the similarities in the differences.
What do I know now about wealth? I
know that wealth is more than what you have in your bank account. I know that
wealth carries with it power and freedom. I know that to be wealthy starts with
making choices that support continued wealth and fosters growth and development
of a prosperous consciousness. What
truth have I uncovered about the behavior of wealthy people? I know that there
are extremely generous and kind. I know that wealthy people who have a genuine
respect for others and the services that they offer and I know that just as
those types of wealthy people exist the complete opposite also exists. I know
that it isn’t about the money that makes them, them. I know that money can’t
make people happy and for some the responsibility of money makes them downright
miserable while others enjoy the responsibility that comes from the
accumulation of wealth. I know that I am beginning to see money as an extension
of my conscious and wealth as a state of being that truly has little to do with
money at all yet it is greatly enhanced by it.
