“Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.” –Oscar Wilde
You cannot judge a person’s potential happiness by his physical assets, such as money, real estate, automobiles, jewelry and other material things that are usually associated with being rich. Some people who appear to be rich in terms of their possessions have miserable lives, and some people who appear to be living in poverty may consider themselves rich because of other assets that they possess. Those who focus mostly on material possessions are always at risk of losing what they have. In addition to being stolen, money can be lost by bad investments or during hard economic times.
Assets such as the love of friends and family are far more important than material goods and services, and they cannot be bought for any amount of money. Intangible assets such as precious memories are locked up in our minds, and only we have the key to these riches. Over a lifetime, we build up an enormous treasure chest of memories with which we can build a beautiful memory garden. However, we dare not plant all our memories in the garden. Some of our memories make us smile when we focus on them. Others make us cry. We should think of those memories that make us smile as beautiful flowers and consider those that make us cry as weeds that are unsuitable for a garden. I once received a letter from a reader who sent the following quotation: “Memories: If they make you smile, keep them. If they don’t, get rid of them.” I totally agree with this philosophy.
I know that getting rid of bad memories is easier said than done. In reality, you cannot truly get rid of bad memories, but you can push them to the back recesses of your subconscious mind. We don’t have control over the thoughts that pop into our minds, but we do have control over which thoughts we choose to dwell on. Just as a flower gardener does not want weeds in her garden, we do not want weeds in our memory gardens. We should periodically weed our gardens and remove any weeds that have crept in.
A beautiful, well maintained flower garden is a sight to behold, which lifts the spirits of everyone who views it. Our memory gardens should include memories of actual flower gardens that we have enjoyed in the past, as well as beautiful places we have visited. But they should also include memories of beautiful people we have known and special moments, such as weddings and newborn babies. There is no way that anyone can place a monetary value on what is in our minds, but if we weed our memory gardens regularly, most of us will find that we are indeed rich, no matter how much or how little money we have.
Wealth is in the eye of the beholder, and some people think they must have a lot of money and other material possessions to be happy. Unfortunately, nobody finds true happiness by simply accumulating possessions. Although material possessions do not prevent happiness, it takes a lot more than them to find peace of mind. We need to search our mind and soul, instead of our wallet, to find out how rich we truly are.
Think about it.
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Copyright 2025
Allen W. Smith
