Monday 1 June 2015

"Everything you need is now free!"

"Everything you need is now free!" said the subject line of the email sitting in my inbox.

I was tempted to look - I mean, could it really be true?

At first glance it did look as though this might be something good - all sorts of items and products that used to cost money now being given away absolutely free! Even the postage, if you ordered, would be free. There was just one problem. There wasn't anything there I actually wanted let alone needed. And I couldn't imagine that anyone else would feel any different!

But it did get me thinking.

What exactly do I really need? What do any of us really need?



Philosophies and religions have been telling us since the beginning of time (or at least since the first humans began to ponder such spiritual questions) that we all already have, deep inside us, what we really need.

Once we've got our shelter and food sorted, have experienced adequate connections or relationships (because we're relational beings) and found a way to keep ourselves safe from any roaming wild animals, then anything else needed is found within the depths of our own minds and souls.

A sense of peace, calm, comfort and purpose...the ability to forgive, understand, keep things in perspective, are all already there within us if we look and if we nurture them.

We can try looking in other places for those things. We can try persuading or expecting others that those are the kinds of things they ought to be providing us with. But sooner or later us adults will come unstuck if we take that attitude.

The truth is that those things, the things we really need, are already there right inside us...absolutely free and accessible whenever we choose to go inside of ourselves to look and experience them.