While sending out a “Happy New Year” email to friends on New Year’s Day, I wished them “health, happiness, and maybe a bit more prosperity.” This past year has been pretty rough on lots of folks, and wishing people a bit more prosperity is certainly not a stretch. Yet, I think we can also learn from the past year that there is a clear difference between “necessities” and “luxuries” since many of us have recently had to focus more on the former than the latter. That’s not a bad thing since we need to be reminded of this occasionally in order to fully appreciate the blessing we do enjoy. I’m all for spending money on nice things or good times as long as we don’t turn those occasions into the basis for turning what was a luxury into a necessity in our minds.
Most everyone wants to be rich, if the definition of rich is freedom from want. One of my favorite dead smart guys was Henry David Thoreau. His comment on this subject has always stuck with me, “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.” There are lots of good things you can do with your mind and your time if you don’t spend all of them in pursuit of “more.”
Try it. It really works! While we’re wishing, let’s just wish for “enough.” Everything past that is gravy.
![Po - [Explored]](http://static.flickr.com/7225/7260527994_23e4e5f04b_t.jpg "Po - [Explored]")
