PROSPERITY

      Perhaps prosperity is more of an internal state than an external one. We can have all the money we need, and everything material we could possibly want, and still feel deprived on the inside. Or we can live hand to mouth and feel abundantly blessed. Riches come in the form of good health, cozy cabins, appreciation of small pleasures, the experience of love, giving and receiving kindness, creativity, humor, friendship, and meaningful communication, as well as wopping numbers in our stock portfolios, and mansions, and memberships at private clubs.
     Fretting over money takes a lot of our time and effort. If we only had more, we think we would be happier. But happy is an inside job. Happy is a choice. Happy does not come from having more of anything in particular. It is the simple result of being kind, and being grateful. And that's fairly easy, seems to me.
     If we are alive, we have the ability to experience beauty and feelings and laughter and good smells and heat and cold and the ever-changing, cycling light. Prosperity is in the experience of life, in all of its variations. We won't find it in the bank.

Insofar as I am able to experience pleasure in being alive, I am prosperous.