A New Earth

I just started reading A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, as I have heard from many people that this book has transformed their lives and the way they experience the world. Of course a statement that bold intrigued me, so now I am on my way to be forever changed for the better. I am only on page 30, but so far he has talked about how we are controlled by the ego and that from a very young age, we attach ourselves and our worth to the things that are "ours."

I have been yearning to detach from many of our belongings for a long time, and have been succeeding slowly. But there is a long way to go, especially in the way of convincing the children to let go of so many of their things. This is not a money issue at all. There are many people who have plenty of money, but choose to live a simple, minimalist life. In fact, the people with the most money who are not in the habit of sharing their wealth with the less fortunate seem to be the most depressed, spend the most time in drug rehab, and often commit suicide. If money were the source of happiness, these things would not happen.

On the contrary, the people who make lots of money, but donate most of it to charity, like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates seem to be genuinely happy people. There are many other folks who are not considered "rich" by our standards, but because they volunteer their time and give of themselves and their money whenever they can, they live very satisfying lives as well. But since they are not famous, they don't usually make it into the news - and they are probably perfectly happy with that as well. The truly generous don't do it for recognition and prefer to remain anonymous.