What makes you happy?

The congregation that I serve is participating in the Ecumenical Lenten Carbon Fast (www.macucc.org/carbonfast).  Today’s contemplations got me thinking…

“Conspicuous consumption - long advocated as a positive American value - certainly runs counter to any Lenten discipline… Look around your living space.  Can you point to things that you own that you bought while thinking that buying that thing would make you happy?  Can you recall a time when you have stopped yourself from some purchase because you knew that it would not make you happy?”

Decades ago I decided to be very conscious of why I was buying things. I am not one to collect stuff in my life.  I like to be able to move freely. (I have a strong inner nomad in me.)  I like open space, minimal clutter.  So, at first I did a precursory glance around my apartment.  Nothing.

Then I sat to meditate picking a Healing Hearts Oracle Card: Worth.  The card invited me to see my worthiness.  The back asked me to do something special for myself; treat myself to something special.  I looked up and saw my boots that I bought before winter at a thrift store.  I saw them, full of hearts, and HAD to have them.  I did not NEED them.  I WANTED them.  I knew they would make me happy.

The thing is, they do bring joy to my heart.

Each time I see them, they remind me to play.

They allow me to walk in Ocean in the winter without freezing.

They free me when I am on my Sacred Land to follow the Spirit of the Land wherever she leads, even through muck.

This winter, when I was feeling DONE with the cold, I put them on and saw through a child’s eyes winter anew. I made a snow angel laughing and enjoying myself.

They make me happy!  They remind me to live from my heart.  They invite me to play, to live loud, to be quirky and weird and fun!!  

I may even preach in them sometime…

What I noticed about this exercise is that the belongings I have, the material things I buy, speak to my heart and spirit and soul; and invite me deeper into connection with Spirit, with myself.  

That is the scale I use before buying something:  Is this thing that I want to buy going to bring joy into my heart?  Is it going to open me to be more loving, joyful, playful, vibrant?  Is it going to invite me to contemplate and deepen my connection with Spirit?  Is it going to feed my spirit and soul?

If the answer is yes, then it becomes part of me.  If the answer is no, then I release it into the Universe.

How about you?  How do you decide what to bring into your life?