Trade-ins - Roots

 

A common philosophy in life is to see what is good, gather it, and through the years add to one's collection. The difficulty is not so much with the principle as with the limitations of our lives—we simply run out of space.

Most lives are full, one can't add something to a full cabinet without first removing something. No matter how much we want good things, or how much we are prepared to pay for them, we won't fit them into our lives without making space. Hence trade-ins, not shopping.

           Then there are some things that are opposed, between which we must choose, like lazy or fit, generous or miserly. And why should a life be so cluttered with what we have considered valuable that there is no space to live? How often is the space is more valuable than what's using it up?

 

Mostly it's our values, or lack thereof, that determine what we accumulate. It's worth asking why we adopted them. Have we really considered what is important?

 

The best treasures in life are not bought or sold, but exchanged. For example, family relationships are not acquired by spoiling the family with expensive houses and gifts, but by changing the overtime hours to family hours. Real values are about time, and time can't be bought The wealthiest still have the same little handful of hours to spend no matter how much they delegate.

            The greatest treasure of all, the pearl of great price, cannot be bought but must be traded for everything. It may not mean being deprived of all one has, but it will mean that ownership of it all is handed over.

 

Here are some more:

I could give up caring so much what people think of my behaviour, I'd read easy stories, climb trees, try surfing.

I could give up pointing out unpleasant things that don't need noticing, and train my eyes for finding the berries in the thorny bramble bush.

I could give up many an ambition, skill and asset that could benefit me for those that will benefit others.