Skip to main content

Winning the Lottery

Yeah I know. Been absent for awhile from my post (no I’m not depressed Ma). Last you heard I left for Mexico and promised a colorful re-telling of the TRIP. Maybe ya’ll thought I climbed that old pyramid of the Sun with my youngest boy and finally stepped off, was blasted into the ether, permanently merged with the infinite, only to be never heard from again…should we all be SO lucky!!!

Nope I’m still here. And I will get around to telling about that place that turns mere mortals into mere mortals with Plenty of Awareness. But not today. Today I want to let you know I think I just won the lottery.

Let that sink in for a sec. Right about now my phone should starting ringing like the ol’ rotary dial in the cartoons. Silence. Good. Let me explain before all the people I never knew start calling me for a bailout.

I do buy lottery tickets on a regular basis. Maybe because I once got 4 out of 6 numbers. Maybe because I figure a “dollar and a dream” right? In this economy a few extra $25 millon couldn’t hurt, right? Anyway I got to thinking about how money seems to ease so many things, and when the world at large is suffering from a difficult economic crisis it exacerbates the underlying fear that so many of us have: that we don’t have enough. That no matter what our financial status is that more is good, that lots more is even better. But more of what? Is there something that can buy peace of mind? Is it money? Is it more acquisitions? What is it really?

A dear friend and I were speaking recently and he relayed a story to me that impressed me. Lately he had taken a hit both in terms of the amount of work he had coming in (income), and had taken a hit on his portfolio. A big hit. Now this friend has always LOVED money and the acquiring of money. He is “good with money” as they say, and conservative in how he spends it. I always looked at him with a mixture of wonderment and respect since I was never really that interested in making millions or being conservative in how I spent the little money I had. To hear him speak about the dramatic shift in his status in such a calm way really moved me. He had found his life was NOT so much about what sat in an investment fund or an IRA. It was about what he was living right now, and how he was feeling in that “now” moment. He was feeling good.

So this morning as I could feel the cervix of my mind opening preparing to birth another blog, I was thinking about winning the lottery. And how I’ve already won. Not the money part so leave me alone please. But the LIFE part. Look and see.

I’m healthy and fit (ok I’m a F.O.N.), I have a beautiful and loving partner Meg in my life (the REAL lotto score!), two wonderful sons Nick and Bodhi, my Mom Junie lives right around the corner from us and is a HUGE part of our lives. I have two fine older brothers who have given me so much love throughout their lives. I am surrounded by friends who inspire and play with me. I am self-employed with amazing employees that are unique and incredible. I live in an amazing seaside community that feels like HOME totally. I get time to take care of my mind and body. I have the opportunity to travel and be with the ones I love and don’t get to see often. Oh, I even have a sweet dog who is fairly neglected and that I occasionally take on long mountain bike rides and stays faithfully on my wheel uncomplaining.

Do you see what I mean? Would more money change any of this? What if I was wealthy beyond compare yet had a life threatening disease? Or my family life was a mess? I mean take any of the things that are in my life right now and replace it with more money. If it’s about replacing something, no thanks. Sure, I’ll keep playing the Lotto. And you know when I do win, I’ll give much of it away. But right now I’m happy just the way Life is, and what's being delivered to my door.

Humm, maybe I better get an unlisted phone number soon…

Peace.
J

Comments

Anonymous said…
ditto!
-burkie
Roger said…
what if somebody offered you $25 million for your dog?

Popular posts from this blog

Losing His Hero

Today in my morning meditation I was strongly feeling my middle brother David who passed away almost two months ago on November 20, 2023. He was 71 years old. A bit of preface here: He also was my abuser growing up (to clarify: emotional and physical, not sexual) and although I had reconciled those experiences through my own inner trauma work we never spoke directly about that time in our lives. We were never very close in our young adulthood although he was very generous when I moved to Encinitas CA to participate in don Miguel Ruiz’s Dreaming School in 2002. He and his wife Carol lived two towns over in Solana Beach. We interacted quite a bit sharing meals and dog walks on the beach and David took a real interest in my son Nick who was 12 at the time. It wasn’t until 20 years later that I became fully aware to the degree of harm I experienced at the hands of my brother while involved in some somatic therapy around my CPTSD diagnosis. I was becoming repeatedly trigg

Waking Up with the What Ifs

Apparently last night I had been dreaming of a life I left behind 11 years ago.  Snippets of memory like peering through a gauzy veil, and scenes vaguely reminiscent of my life as a builder in a small coastal town north of Boston. I woke up with the What Ifs. You know how dreams are: like your eyes can’t completely focus, situations that are seemingly disconnected but maybe not, faces you know but can’t place, yet the feeling in the dream is quite real. I was back in Old Town and trying to figure out why the house I was in was unfinished. There was a meeting to be had there, but it was just me. I walked down a cobbled street to what I figured to be the office of the architect and it was a room of all glass and about 10 people seated around a glass table. I tried to get the attention of the man who was the architect on this particular job without disrupting the meeting. He looked like a friend who wasn’t an architect but a realtor and a neighbor.  I wondered how he switched care

Mindset Like a Dog

This morning after getting the kids off to school I decided to take my dogs for a longer than usual hike on our local mountain. I took a couple big swigs of water, layered up, added hat and gloves, and headed out the gate. The dogs knew what was up and bounced around me, excited and eager for whatever lay ahead. Yet every time they see me putting on my boots it’s like they have never been walked before. Their excitement is fresh. Every day. How is it that they have no idea how long or short I am going to walk them, yet they are always down to walk? I never have to prod them out of their lethargy.  Rain, snow, or sun, they are ready.  Anytime. This got me to wondering what if I adopted this dog mindset? What exactly would that feel like? ******* Recently I’ve felt flat. Not super inspired.  I’m attempting to increase my client base as a Mindset Coach and honestly renovating a 200-year-old house like in my former life feels markedly easier than landing new clients.   It’s the