As someone who grew up always thinking about money, or rather the lack thereof, AKA living la vida broka, sometimes it’s hard to believe that having money doesn’t entirely make the world go round. Yes, it does keep a roof over my head, and yes it is something that does take care of me, but it is not and could never be all of me. And sometimes when the going gets tough, I think it’s nice to remind ourselves that money will never be the end all, be all.
Prayer is a habit I have lost, but I think it helps to have some sort of ritual, some sort of mantra, some sort of something, anything, to keep us in line when we feel like we’re falling short or behind. So whether you want to call this a prayer, a mantra, whatever it may be, it’s something that, if I can drill in my mind, is priceless.
I will not let money define me.
I will not let it bring me down.
I will not let it measure up to who I am and who I become.
Money doesn’t buy happiness,
Though it may amount to some sort of security.
It may be why I lost my car.
Why I lost my dog,
And why I lost my house,
All in the span of one month.
It may be why my parents fought.
It may be why they kept secrets,
Secrets they don’t know they’ve confided in me about,
Secrets that I will bury with me the day I die.
It may be why people stray from one another.
It may be why people become intimidated by one another,
Threatened.
Scared.
It may be why people get torn apart.
But it won’t purchase my priorities. It won’t make me sell my soul.
It’s tempting to want it all, especially when it feels we have anything except just that.
But “all” is more than a piece of paper.
All is who we are at this very moment.
It’s who we want and aspire to be.
It’s who our parents are and what they dream.
It’s where we come from and where we’re going.
It’s who we fall in and out of love with.
It’s who comes and goes in our lives.
We just shouldn’t let ourselves amount to just one thing, even if it seems like it can do a lot for us.
Just because we are so much more than that.
At least we should want to be.
We should want to not let money define us.
