Who is rich?

This is a question I have asked myself several times in the past. I am richer than when I was a kid. I can remember having just enough money to travel in the bus, I never even looked at the fancy stuff in boutique shops. They were eye catching, there were rows of them on the sidewalk, sweets and toys, what a kid would crave. But I wasn't rich. I would wait two hours at a bus stop until I get a free ride. That was how much my time was valued when I was a teenager. However, now things seem different.

Sky: a thing that you cannot buy https://unsplash.com/@ryanxbraxton

I value my time in dollars. Each hour passing not doing anything productive means I am losing dollars. Guess I am richer than before. I have a bag full of skills at my disposal to earn money. Years and years of my youth spent on learning them. However, am I happier than a child? My former teenage self who was looking at people who are passing by. I saw thousands of them passing by me daily. None of them looked happy. Guess I am reached that stage of life.

Money doesn't make us happy. It just solves some problems. Like your utility bills and travel expenses. However, what makes us happy is how we spend our time. The internal feeling of fulfillment in life. Thing you look at and say wow. Internal feeling of content. Mind you there are 10000 things you cannot buy with money. Now let's look at a different definition of richness.

He who knows he has enough is rich. Lao Tzu.

Because there is no upper bound to the greed, you can never be satisfied with more. If you are rich enough, you might want to travel to the space station and spend a week there or even go deep down to visit mariana Trench in a submarine. Human madness have no limits. The person who is rich is a one who has understood this. To know you already have enough. Imagine yourself sitting on a hill facing the breeze, smelling fresh air of the country. Looking at leaves of a palm tree making noise to the wind. Imagine you know the feeling of an ant crawling up your feet. And you have time to watch a spider weaving it's web amon the grass leaves. Can you even buy that with money? You cannot. But is it out of your reach? No, it is not. Anyone can walk to a park and get the similar feeling.

It is not at all about money. It is about everything. Imagine you start eating your breakfast. From a buffet. The guy who is not satisfied would want to taste the entire buffet, and he will end up with Ischemic heart disease at 40. The one who do not know their limits, can end their life by jumping off a cliff, into an unknown water, just to feel the thrill of it. If we do not know and contemplate on death, we might not live a satisfied life. The fullfillment doesn't come tomorrow. It comes today. There is no dream to chase. Richness can be there in an ordinary life if you see that as rich.

List of things you cannot buy with money.

1. Stars

2. Clouds

3. Sunlight

4. Moonlight

5. Rainbows

6. The wind

7. Ocean waves

8. A sunrise

9. The horizon

10. A mountain's shadow

11. The blue of the sky

12. The sound of rain

13. A shooting star

14. The reflection of the moon in a lake

15. The scent of the forest

16. The silence of a snowy landscape

17. A passing breeze

18. The Milky Way

19. The warmth of a summer afternoon

20. The colours of a sunset