MONEY...MONEY...MONEY!!!

This picture came in an e-mail this week.

I immediately stopped what I was doing and thought,"Gosh! Wish it were so!"

Based on the excitement from those who had gotten the "forward" before me, I could tell this was an email NO ONE was taking chances about NOT FORWARDING!


You know the song, "Money, money, money (x6); Some people got to have it
Some people really need it!"

Money is the real separator of a man and his friends.

KNOW THIS!

DO NOT WAIT...DO...NOT...WAIT... for a crisis to find out about this!

Do not assume that a friend would give, loan or share even $10.

You honestly do NOT know people...until you have had to deal with them on the issue of money.

At one time in my life, I was casual about money. Didn't pay too much attention to it, as there always seemed to be a flow.

I spent it when I had it, as free as a bird, not thinking of "hoarding" it for a better day.

Then, came "the desert."



You learn.

Without a doubt, I KNOW and have witnessed first-hand the beauty and ugliness ...true ugliness... of people when it comes to money.

There are those who spend ALL their waking moments, obsessed about what they can possess with money. There are those who believe it will give them the status that they believe they NEED to associate with the class of people they WANT!

What they don't know is that MONEY will, and can never, ever buy class! (TRUE CLASS comes from the Spirit within....yet again "Class," as viewed by the world's eye, can be bred into some people.)

On the flip side are those people who handle money with a calm detachment, as serving and doing only good! Look at the late Ted Kennedy and his family as the example of what money and CLASS can DO to serve the common good! In the beginning, it probably was bred but then came Spirit!

Seeing how people operate with money was an awakening for me and a tremendous spiritual lesson and TREMENDOUS SPIRITUAL GROWTH!


There is NO GREATER LESSON about the Spirit of a person than the way he or she interacts with money.


I have heard some of the greatest people who would be spiritual claim ALL MANNER of commitment to God.

Then, ask them about or for MONEY!!!

ASK THEM about SERVING GOD...loving God...doing God's WILL...caring about their fellow man...when it comes to MONEY!

I guess because I never held money as something "SACRED," it truly dismayed me to see and witness the UGLINESS of folks when it comes to talking about or parting with money.

Some people make you want to RUN from their Consciousness and total lack of regard and respect for people...when it involves money.


There are some UGLY FOLKS OUT THERE.


The thing that makes me MOST glad about knowing them and seeing them at their "best" is because we can go a LIFETIME, interacting with, sharing a life, sharing a friendship, sharing our hearts, our homes with people and never ever truly find out about their Souls...until we have an occasion about money.

It's UGLY STUFF!


On the flip side, though, there are those people who share the light of their Spirit, truly, when it comes to sharing money with others.


These are the folks you never, ever really wondered about because the light always went ahead of them to light their way.


There are NO DARK CORNERS hidden in their Soul!

Their reflection was always so transparent for the world. There are absolutely NO hidden pathways or crevices.

Then there are those silent, loving ones.


Those who don't say a thing.

Then comes the "thing" about MONEY!

Their reflection, too, always went ahead of them: if they were dark and brooding, WATCH OUT AND RUN AWAY when it comes to MONEY! If they exuded light and goodwill in their Silence and quietness, WALK UP and see the WELCOME!

Life offers us few surprises!

The thing that we must do...before we are CAUGHT by surprise...IS TO DISCERN.

Pay attention to the people in your lives.

Get to know them. They send out their light or darkness always....in ALL WAYS!


Watch for those that would get preachy when it comes to money, using this as a total camouflage for a lack of compassion and really, coldness.


I've seen it when I've walked with some as a beggar happens by. Or if I share a restaurant meal and have to leave a tip. They do so grudgingly. One person even once said, "let them go out and get a real job," yet is the first to demand first-class service!

At this stage of my life, I believe...truly believe...because of the multiplicity of my experiences, that life can offer me few more surprises.


Sometimes, it does, though.

Thankfully, most of the time, I'm pleasantly surprised.

For that, I'm grateful.

Or...did I finally get wise about people, places and things? Have I truly learned to discern the "truth" of people, through their transparent skin?

I don't know whether I've become more spiritually discerning, more wise to the ways of the world, or simply just more cynical, but as Oprah Winfrey would say, "one thing I know for sure," is that people may try to wear many, many disguises, but few can truly fool me!

Now...back to that pile of MONEY! MONEY! MONEY! that came through my e-mail.



"Gosh. Wish it were so!!!"

Now cut/paste, then listen to the O'Jays sing about "For the Love of Money!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny_j-bAhq68

So true...so sadly...very true!

Namaste',

Che'