Money
and Spirit
“Money
flows through all our lives, sometimes like a rushing river, and
sometimes like a trickle. When it is flowing, it can purify, cleanse,
create growth, and nourish. But when it is blocked or held too long,
it can grow stagnant and toxic to those withholding or hording it.
Like water, money is a carrier. It can carry blessed energy,
possibility, and intention, or it can carry control, domination, and
guilt. It can be a currency of love...or a carrier of hurt or
harm...” Lynn Twist
Most
of us have strong opinions when it comes to money. Some of us account
for every penny, some of us spend it as though we will never run
out, and some of us worry and fret over every dime coming in and
every dollar going out. All of these amount to the same
thing—obsession with money. One good way to think about money, as
well as life, is the image of water that Lynn Twist evokes.
Thomas
Moore, in his book, A Religion of One's Own, frequently quotes
Herakleitos, “Everything flows.” Life involves continuous
movement and change; experiences, money, activities and people move
in and out. Life, by its very nature, flows. We run into trouble when
we try to stop that forward motion--when we want something, or
someone, so desperately that we grab hold and won't let go. Our
tendency, when something is scarce or precious, is to hold tight to
it, to master it, to control it, and in doing so we turn blessing
into poison. More relationships, whether partnerships or marriages,
end over money—specifically, who controls it--than anything else.
Pondering
our relationship to money is important. Are we obsessed with making
it, spending it, or hording it? Do we allow it to flow in a way that
simply covers our needs and allows us to help others? Do we take joy
in giving and taking, in providing and being provided for? Money,
like water, is a carrier of spiritual energy. We make it sacred or
profane.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment