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I just finished reading “Soul of Money” by Lynne Twist.  I am still trying to internalize all that was said.  It is obvious by our current economic situation all over the world that some new approach to being with our money is not only justified but imperative.  Her touching book transforms our entire relationship with money and takes it to a deeper and more personal level.

This book is not only about money but about how we are currently living our lives.  It is about directing the money that flows through our lives, our checking accounts or in our wallets.  Are we directing our money in alignment with our values, our highest intentions, what we wish to see in the world?

Ms. Twist spoke about when her granddaughter was born and she was going shopping in celebration of the event.  She was going to buy all of those things most grandmothers love to buy and of course in excess because of her excitement and joy.

Her son reminded his mother that they were living with the “Soul of Money” principles and only purchasing what their daughter needed and from manufactures that were in alignment with their values; for example, manufacturers that did not use child labor practices.  He had the names of those brands that he wanted to support and the stores that carried them.

What a beautiful expression of sharing our gifts of money in support of our highest values.  I am beginning to review exactly where I spend my money now.  I am observing from where my purchases come, and also asking the question, “Do I really need this item?”.

As I look at where I have been directing the flow of my money, I can see that it has often been spent on what I want rather then what I need.  I am truly living in “sufficiency”.   I have all that I need and more.

Thank you, Lynne Twist, for writing such an inspirational book and bringing the soul back into our money.    It is amazing that when we reflect on all that we have, how much appreciation we feel.  The “Soul of Money” has enabled us to bring our spirit and integrity back into our money and our lives.

When the money coming into our homes these days appears to be shrinking and our ability, to spend as we used to, is slowly disappearing, then this is the time to bring the magic of love to our money.

We all need to look at the dollars coming into our lives with absolute clarity.  How much do we earn?   What are our real/necessary expenses, including savings?  Create both of these lists with love and an appreciation for life.

When we go shopping for our food and other necessities, let us plan ahead and buy only what we need.  We can become strategic and creative in all of our shopping.   After we pay for our expenses and put money into our savings, always have at least one dollar left over.

These left over dollars become the magical dollars that go into our treasure chests.  We can then engage each other in discovering how we would like to spend these dollars.  Would we like to go to the movies, out to dinner, to an amusement park, or buy something special?

We can take turns or we can decide on something we can do together.  It becomes an exciting game as we watch our treasure chests fill until we have enough.  Then these magical dollars will be spent in celebration and joy.

The real magic in life is almost never in the instant gratification of things but rather in the anticipation of something.  As we wait, the excitement usually grows.  With advertising and the use of credit cards, we may have forgotten this concept.

Imagine telling ourselves and/or our children, “We can have  __(fill in with our specific desire)__ when our treasure chest is full.”  Or, “Remember, we are saving our treasure chest money for ____ right now.”  And we can also say, “We can’t have ____ today but we can go to the park and have a picnic, play a game, have some popcorn and watch a movie at home together, or even have a picnic at home on the floor on a rainy day, etc.

Let us all create a treasure chest and bring the joy and magic of money back into our lives.

Money is a neutral energy that fuels the world.  Any significance beyond this is what we as individuals or as a society give to it, such as fear, anger etc.  We could instead give it our love, and our gratitude, which are attributes found in the heart.

Several years ago, my husband and I were caught up in the negativity of paying bills as if they were out of our control. “Look how high this bill is?”  “Who made these charges on the credit card?”  Etc. etc.

After one of these eventful evenings, I went for a walk in the woods and suddenly realized that what we were doing made absolutely no sense.   Every bill that we had received was a direct exchange of someones gift of their goods or service to us.  In fact, often it took many people to provide even one of these exchanges.  If we were unhappy about a certain bill, then we could re-examine the need for this gift, which we had already received.  Maybe we could elect not to purchase this item again.

I decided to go home and, with my husband, re-evaluate all of these bills with a sense of gratitude toward all of those people responsible for sharing their gifts with us.   To begin the process, we felt gratitude for those that paid for our services and provided the money for us to pay these bills.

We then analyzed each of the expenses and decided whether we wished to have these gifts in the future.  We further decided to use a debit card rather than a credit card, which made it easier for us to prioritize our expenses and spend our money on those things we truly valued.  We paid our bills with a new appreciation and gratitude.  We were grateful for the roof over our heads, the warmth of the heat, the lights in our home and the easy access to water.  In many parts of the world, these are luxuries.

Many women in Africa carry their money in their clothing, right next to their hearts and hold it with love.  They call it, “warm money”.  We can all do this with our money.  Spend our money on those things we truly value and spend it with the love and appreciation for all of those people that provided the gifts of their goods or services for our comfort and needs.  Let all of our money be “warm money”.

We began as a community, all of us banning together for our own survival.  Within this community system was a strong network of individual relationships.  We each had our own gifts, which we used to produce our goods and services.   We freely exchanged these gifts with each other in our community structure.  (As a  human species, we are meant to exist in relationships with one another and our survival still depends on this.)

As populations grew, the exchange of our goods and services soon became too difficult to manage;  therefore, market places were developed in the center of towns.  This enabled us to go to one location to exchange the gifts of our talents and labor.   For example, I could gift you a hand crafted blanket and you could repair my wagon.

As societies became larger, even this became a cumbersome way to exchange the gifts of our goods and services.  For example, I wanted to exchange an animal for many smaller items from different people.  Since I could not divide the animal, I was limited to finding someone who had something I needed that had equal value.

This finally led to a substitute for the direct gifting of our goods and services.  One common substitute for this exchange was gold, which was later used in the form of coins.  Our goods and services were assigned a value on a gold standard and it was used to sell and purchase what we needed.  These gold coins later became paper money backed by gold, until finally just the paper money itself was used, and now we mostly exchange our goods and services through electronic transfer.

We are a long way from the original purpose of money, which was a means of sharing our gifts of goods and services with each other.  Money has taken on a life of its own and has often been used as a means of massive greed and corruption.  We have created an illusion around money and forgotten its original purpose.  Money is not separate from us, but is in fact dependent on our ability to produce goods and services.

Money represents us as a society.   How are we earning our money?  How are we spending it?   From where does it come?   When I receive a paycheck from my school district, it represents the gifts of the goods and services that many thousands of individual people have made and paid for in the form of taxes and I offer the exchange of my services to their schools.   When I spend the money, I am receiving the gifts of other individuals and so on.   All of the companies that receive my business are there because of the gifts of many people.

The credit industry has further complicated the original roots of money because it no longer represents our current gifts of goods and services but rather a promise of these gifts in the future, which ultimately will have to be paid.  We have become numb and dizzy with all of the zeros added to the credit system of money as it occurs today, but in spite of this, we can each make the commitment to bring the heart energy back into the money that we do control.   Let us reflect on the money that goes in and out of our lives and be grateful to all those individuals that have made this exchange possible.