MONEY AND HAPPINESS

The phrase has already been coined that "money does not buy happiness," and I believe that to be true. I've heard both sides of the argument, and actually some really good arguments on the subject, but ultimately I have to say that a persons happiness should not relate directly to how much money they have. Truehappiness, the kind that you thought of for as long as you can remember, when you really think about it does not require possessions at all. You may feel happy after purchasing something but that is temporary. The true happiness I speak of lasts forever. Do a little exercise right now. Make sure that you are in a place where you won't be interrupted, somewhere quiet. Now pause... close your eyes... and think about a time in your life when you were truly happy.... just sit and ponder that time for 30 seconds. I did this exercise today and thought about when my wife and I were dating before we were married, before we had kids, a mortgage, careers, etc. I just think about how happy we were, mind you we are still happy today, but during that time it was an excited happy. Excited about the possibilities, the unknown, the potential that we had as a young couple who were ready to take on the world.

That time in our life didn't require money. It didn't require possessions. I was working at a warehouse and she had just gotten her real estate license. We had no money, I remember sometimes being sad that I couldn't buy her things that I felt she deserved. When I was down on myself because of that, she would always come to me and say "It doesn't matter. All I care about is that I have you." Instantly I would feel better and know that the memory of something as small as walking together in the park would last longer than any possession I could have bought for her.

Now that's not to disregard gifts, because I do think they are valuable, but do something different. For example, I remember one Christmas, we really had no money. Our children were 3 and 16 months old. We had saved some money and gotten our kids a couple of things and my wife and I knowing our financial situation only got 1 or 2 small gifts for each other. I remember on Dec. 24th going to bed with my wife and I waited for her to fall asleep. Once I knew she was out, I slipped out of our bed and stayed up until 3am cleaning the house and doing laundry. We were going to our parents house to visit for the day and I knew that she would want to get the house clean before leaving. I didn't want to see her cleaning on Christmas Day! I wanted her to relax and enjoy herself with the kids. When she woke up she was so happy to find out that the house was spotless because she knew that I had to have been up all night to accomplish what I had done. It was really sacrificing something temporal that I love (sleep) to make my wife happy.

I lived in the Philippines for a little while, sometimes amongst the worst of economic conditions. I remember seeing a family of 7 eating nothing but rice and squash for dinner. The worst part was that they split the squash into 7 equal pieces. The thing that I gained the most from that experience is that the family was perfectly happy and content with what they had, offering a prayer of thanksgiving to God for giving them food to eat that day. That just blew me away! They were so happy! During this recession hard times are upon us, but one thing I can hold to and I will swear by is that if we're not happy or don't find a way to be happy during the trying times in our lives we will never be truly happy. That I know to be true.