THE ENTRANCE "FEE TO LIFE": ¿DO YOU HAVE ONE?

Do not take thought for your persons or your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that the virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue come money and every other good of man, public as well as private... The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death. - Socrates 

We all know that life is a sequence of events, that when taken in hindsight and knowledge appears to be interconnected. Each instance in our lives builds on a past event, and the understanding gained propels us forward to the next plateau or learning experience. In order for us to learn and grow, we must also be open to change and the lessons to be learned.  Sometimes, we don’t recognize the event for what it is; a time of growth and evolution. Growth and evolution cause us to reflect on things that are no longer germane to our existence or no longer represent who we really are; and money {rather the lack thereof} emphasizes this element of life more than anything else on this planet.

This month I've had various persons seeking some monetary help. I have NO problem helping those in need, but I can’t help but wonder what it is about January that puts us in this situation. Now I know many would say, oh the holidays yada, yada, yada, and whereas that is true to an extent, I still feel there is something larger going on here. This makes me remember a former landlord of mother who was VERY cheap and unkind and though my mother never missed a payment, she would tell the other tenants that did:

Eat less, wear less and you’ll have what you need to pay your bills. 

Even though there is a ring of truth in her 'sage' advice, I can’t help but wonder if that’s just the person that has money talking down to folks that does not. How can the common man make a nickel out of a penny? SO many of us force ourselves to get out of collective beds to slave away @ our various place of work just to NOT have the monies we need to properly take care of ourselves.

There’s a quote that reads: “This is your life. Do what you love. And do it often” These words seems pretty obvious, don’t you think? Yet, I doubt too many of us do what we love even occasionally, let alone often. The practicalities of life and money TOO often get in our way. As motivational speaker Simon Sinek (author of the book Start With Why) says it better than I could:

“If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears”

It’s a pity that most of us are hardwired to accept our struggle with money and ONLY the immature human spirit thinks that it doesn't need to examine itself. People are struggling to survive and finding recognition through a perception, that life is acknowledged when the right amount of money is in their coffers. How much longer can we look @ ourselves as having an entrance fee to win satisfaction to this existence we call life? Hiding behind an illusion of who you really are when it comes to money is tantamount to missing yourself in action.