The Cost Of What You Want

For years, while sitting in a tiny church in Venice, CA, I stared at this quote on the wall. “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.“— Mary Baker Eddy.

I did not truly understand what that meant. But more than anything I wanted to.

It was a promise, and I wanted to believe it to be true. Money was something in minimal supply, and all I could think of was how much better my family would be if that saying meant that money would appear somehow. Maybe in the mailbox when I got home?

Over the years, I have come to have a better idea of the meaning of those words, and that has made all the difference. Yes, Divine Love does meet our every human need. But not the way I wanted it to at the time. A better way.

I began to understand that Divine Love gives us spiritual ideas, and in turn, as we apply those ideas, and take action, all our human needs are met.

My process is to first listen within to find the qualities that represent what I believe that I need. After that, I take action on the ideas that come to me as a result of the listening process. Both the listening and the action are essential in order to be moving in the right direction.

Henry David Thoreau says this: “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”

Which brings us back to the practice of learning how to say yes to what we want, and no to what we don’t.

As always, it begins with what we allow to reside in our thoughts and beliefs since what we perceive to be reality magnifies in our lives.

If we are clear about what we want, we will spend our time wisely.

This process is easier when we begin with the acceptance that all that we need is already present and that we include it, in the same way that an acorn contains the entire tree.

However, the acorn has to be planted in good ground, watered, fed, and receive light for it to grow into the tree. But all of that tree is already present in the tiny acorn.

We are acorns of Life.

We include all that is needed for us to bloom in our lives. However, we, too, need to be planted in good ground. That ground is when we begin with the right ideas that include our true spiritual nature. We have to water those ideas, feed them, bring them into the light, and let go of anything that does not help us grow towards the life we are meant to express that brings joy both to us and to others.

Like trees, we can drop branches that are no longer useful, and the leaves that are no longer needed. Our life lessons, like the branches and leaves, feed our new growth, but we don’t have to remain in them. Let them go.

When we consciously choose what to say yes to, time being the the price we pay for it, it will be worth every minute. Along the way, all our human needs are abundantly met, and life is filled with things whose value can never be measured, making them priceless.

Lao-Tzu said, “Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.‘”

So what do you want to spend your time on? Be clear about it and let the rest go.

Remember this. Don’t begin with the material picture. Start with the spiritual qualities that the picture represents, because, after all, qualities represent the true nature of everything, including money.