It’s easy to grasp that slick slip of paper and see the Peace Chamber completed, with the finest craftsmanship my artisan friends can deliver. Likewise, my old farmhouse takes a quantum leap back in time - with a complete restoration - and a quantum leap forward with the installation of 21st century technology for the greenest mechanical and electrical systems. It is the posterhouse for rejuvenating Maine’s venerable housing stock.
Simultaneously, I build my exquisite small Spiral House, with masonry stove, outdoor shower, heated patio floor, hot tub, sauna, and cherry cabinets milled from that tree that dropped last year. I acquire the abutting property and annex it to Hope Peace Ceremonies. The people, equipment, and sensitive improvements to turn this land into a permaculture farm side by side with ceremonial spaces are easy to obtain with a few strokes scribbled in my bottomless checkbook.
Visits to my grandchildren in Idaho are routine, and frequent. I can even fly first class, and have a place of my own in Idaho to stay nearby. Lots of friends in the virtual world are flesh and blood friends now, because I can travel easily when ever and where ever I want to. I have lots of space and ease for them to stay with me in Maine, too.
It would take all of my fingers and toes, and some of yours, to name the people, groups, and causes I will joyfully gift with money. Since there is no way I can imagine spending a quarter of a billion dollars, (not being the Federal Government), I shall promptly create a foundation to give the money away. I envision a community building matching grant program that empowers recipients to create the means to bring peace through creativity in their own patch of earth.
Which reminds me - Hope Peace Chamber would probably need to apply for one of those grants, because money doesn’t build a Peace Chamber. Only people joined together singing can do that.
Yes, I have fun dreaming of how I will indulge myself outrageously, yet consciously, with my lottery windfall. But what happens to my visions the morning after I know I don’t have the winning ticket? Do my visions shrink to the size of my ordinary, and occasionally overdrawn, bank account? Well, yes, kind of.
Is it a true desire if it is not burning in me no matter what? If it is dependent for its juice on a pile of cash, real or imagined, is it really calling me? Why do I need a fantasy of a government sponsored lottery to fund my desires? What is the point of a bottomless pile of cash in a national bank somewhere, before I’ll even start letting my imagination run wild about the good things life brings me, and I bring to life?
What is it about a huge pile of money, like a powerball jackpot, that turns it into God?
There is nothing wrong with money. Money is wonderful! It’s just a way we humans invented to pay things forward, keep the energy moving. Paying money is the easiest and cheapest way to get stuff. It was invented cause it is easier to carry than a goat. Now money isn’t even physical, just packets of electrons, moving around the globe, changing digits in columns. But we have the idea that with sufficiently large numbers in those plus columns, we can do, be, or have anything we want. We can become as gods ourselves.
Crazy. Is it a symptom of a cultural disease that I think I need all that money to give me the power to do, or create what I want. Is it also a symptom of a cultural disease that I want all these fancy things, like technology, and houses, and foundations giving out money? Again, there is nothing wrong with any of these things, but they are optional. I don’t need all that to have a beneficial impact on the world. I already do that, just by being here.
My creativity, purpose, mission, and desires are fully funded. I have an account with the First Big Bang Bank of the Universe now. It’s a bottomless bank account available to fund any thing I can imagine. My relationship with this bank is so intimate and trusting that I don’t even need a checkbook, I just need a clear thought powered by feeling, in other words, my heart’s desire, and I can withdraw any amount I need to fund my next step.
Recently a friend expressed that she was tired of sufficiency, she wanted more than sufficiency. That got me thinking about what is sufficient. It is plenty! all I need right when I need it.
What do I need? I need fulfillment of my desires. What are my desires? They boil down to health, shelter, beauty, love, freedom, and community. Any specific intentions that support these desires are divinely inspired, and sufficiently--abundantly--
In his book, No Word for Time, Evan T. Pritchard writes about an Algonquin view of money:
“Money is like food, something to be spent (or not spent) in a way that nurtures the spirit and the body. To the traditional Micmac, money is like fish: you get a little every day and stay happy. You pile it up in a secret place and something starts to stink. You can’t hoard fish, but you know where to find it and how to get it when you need to.”
Pritchard continues:
“The modern person spends money for bodily and emotional comfort ... spends according to how much is in the bank, as opposed to finding what he or she really wants, and acquiring the means to get it, through trade, or exchange of money or perhaps, through ritual.
While the modern person worries about the future, the traditional elder only exists in the now... Some traditional elders don’t have bank accounts; their money is only in the now, too.”
In a society where there is no word for time, it is easy to let money be in the now. We modern people have too many words for time: including words like due date, late charge, mortgage, credit. I learned long ago that any perceived money problems were simply time problems. We have structured a culture built around the time/money continuum: money comes in every two weeks, and money goes out on due dates. We pay for this time/money continuum with our freedom.
I understand now why I feel so free at the prospect of a huge pile of cash at my disposal. It flattens out the time barrier, and gives the appearance of freedom.
Is it possible for this modern person to forget the word for time, to have money be in the now, to trust the abundance and efficiency of the First Big Bang Bank of the Universe, and get that I am already making miracles, right now, just as I am.
Awesome post! Off to share on FB and Twitter!
Posted by: Tammy Vitale | March 14, 2010 at 08:46 AM
This is great, Carla! Love your thoughts about this.
Posted by: Kathy | March 14, 2010 at 09:42 AM
Thanks Tammy and Kathy. This post began as an article on FB, and I realized it didn't live on my own blogs. I needed to read it again, and I am glad it works for you too!
Posted by: Carla Sanders | March 15, 2010 at 12:55 AM
It IS Possible. Rock it, and show us how :-)
Posted by: blissmonger | March 17, 2010 at 10:21 AM
Well, I'm trusting it - because I have to! No choice! Easier that way. :)
I wish you could do all those things, too, Carla, and I believe you will accomplish a good many of them without having to win the lottery. Just printed out the 2nd part of the ibogaine article. Will be in touch. All my love!
Posted by: Angela | March 20, 2010 at 01:11 PM