Wealth

Well, I'm sitting here in a hotel in Rutherford, New Jersey, the skyline of NYC visible 13 miles away. I have two shows tomorrow in New Jersey, both school assembly programs, presenting "Magic With A Message" -- the message is about bullying.

This is the trip I took last week when I got my schedule all screwed up and got a week ahead of myself. Today I made the drive again -- although not before double-checking on the date!

A very nice hotel maintenance staffer spent about 15 minutes trying to get my little DVD player hooked up to the room television. Finally succeeded when he came back with some new cables. Turns out my cable didn't have a long enough pin on the tip.

Good chance I won't be watching anything anyway. I have so much work I want and need to do (including writing this little blog post). And when I am alone in hotels I value the time spiritually, as a chance to go within, meditate, and connect with my true priorities. It's so easy to get caught up in the daily patterns and demands, as we all know. Being on the road is a great opportunity to step out of all that for a while, evaluate, think, and pray.

Tears came to my eyes on the trip here (an almost four hour drive), as I thought about how wealthy I am. Why is it that "wealth" is always immediately understood financially? Wealth means having an abundance, an excess, of what is highly valuable to you. I have close friendships that go back 40 years, a beautiful wife, and a wonderful 6 year old son. I have deer and wild turkeys right outside my livingroom picture window. A fabulous cat named Sushi. I am virtually surrounded with goodness.

I don't have financial wealth, and, frankly, I just can't get that excited about it, and have never been motivated to achieve it. My passions are for things that money can't buy. Do I want more money. Sure! But I never want to forget that right now, at this very moment, I am exceedingly more wealthy than Howard Hughes and so many other money-chasers in this world.