Packing To Go

>    Benazir Bhutto was buried today in Garhi Khuda Baksh, near her ancestral home in Pakistan. As I look at the photos of the simple wooden casket being carried and followed by throngs of mourners, I am reminded of the shared tradition of simple wooden caskets among so many of the devout world religions. Which reminds me of the ornate bronze and metal caskets and elaborate funerals one so often attends here in the West. Which causes me to think about what it is that we really amass in a lifetime and just what, exactly, is it that we can take with us when we die.
    I have, in this lifetime thus far, had both times of great affluence and times of financial hardship. I consider this a special blessing, as I have had the benefit of learning what life is like with money and “things” as well as what it is like without.
    As a child and young adult, my family was financially affluent and I truly wanted for nothing material that I desired. Yet, I was an unhappy child and young adult…lacking in self-confidence, self-love and feeling alienated from most people. This was one of the blessings I mentioned, for I learned at a very early age what most people take a lifetime to know. Money cannot buy the things that matter. However, despite my feelings and my profound realization, it was not until I lived financial hardship that I turned inward to discover what true wealth is.
    True wealth is trusting your inner guidance. It’s an awareness of the connectedness of all living beings.  It’s finding purpose that transcends the immediacy of your own needs and applying whatever gifts Creator has given you in pursuit of that purpose. It’s an appreciation for the finite period of time we are given a body in which to do the work that can only be done by us in this lifetime. It’s having the courage, through both words and deeds, to support what it is you believe to be true based upon your own unique experience of life.
    All of the material bounty acquired in the material world will be left here when the Spirit that is You completes this part of the journey, moving on in Spirit only. However, all of non-material wealth amassed through self-awareness and manifestation of purpose continue on, both here through the inspired works of those who remain, as well as in other realms where treasure is measured not by “how much?” but by “how True?” 
    I think beyond the simple wooden casket Benazir Bhutto was, and remains, a wealthy woman.

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