The consumer culture we live in is a distraction from this wonderful truth:

The best things in life are free.

Think about the things that make you truly happy.  Like, deeply happy and satisfied.

Is it the new floor mats for your car?  The new paint color in your dining room?  IPhone6?

Meh…There’s always that immediate rush of a new item.  The promise of how it can improve or entertain your current day to day.  There’s some immediate energy there like when you were a kid with a new toy.

But, that glimmering newness soon dims leading you back to your baseline and craving more stuff.

It’s just like the refined sugar from a candy bar.  There’s a promise there of satiating the hunger in your stomach or scratching that “I need something sweet” itch.

But, your body flashes that garbage off in an instant because it’s not the natural calories that give you sustainable long term power.

A chocolate bar is not food.

It’s a fabricated and processed food imposter.

Your purchased good is the same as that candy.

An imposter of good times…of an improved life.

Forget buying shit.

Don’t whine about the money you don’t have.

Get up early and go watch the sunrise.

Find a quiet trail and go walk there.

Think about your past.

What’s imbedded in your memory?

I’m sure it’s not the trip to Best Buy to get a flat screen TV.  Or even the TV itself because the technology became antiquated in less than a year.

This is what’s in your mind:

• The times you spent doing your dreams instead of just thinking about them.

• Seeing nature’s beauty.

• Laughing so hard with friends that you peed yourself.

• Deep, poignant conversations with your lover that skip over time and are so rewarding you feel like the two of you are one.

Do you have kids?

Yes, you pay to raise them, but when your child says,

“I love you “

And not because it’s Christmas or because you bought them a new bike.

But, because they recognize your unconditional devotion to their upbringing.  Kids don’t throw words like that around with an agenda like some adults.  They say it because they mean it – And that’s life gold.

A friend of mine who owns a Bed and Breakfast on the vacation island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Cape Cod told me such a story a couple years back.

Running a B&B is hard work.  All the logistics of checking guests in and out, laundry, cleaning rooms – “I make breakfast for everyone except myself April through September every year”.  She and her husband hustle during the tourist season to make the business flow and still have to be good parents to their two kids.

One day her son, maybe 7 years old at the time, says,

“Mom, you work so hard – you deserve a vacation.”

“I do deserve a vacation.”  She said to her son then as well as to me at the time.

The smile on her face as she told me this story said it all.  That acknowledgement from her son was vindication that she was doing it right.  She was unknowingly teaching by example and her son got it.

Those words didn’t cost anything, but she’ll carry that moment always.

Your friends – especially those that have known you since your adolescent, goofball days.

You can’t get from anyone else what your old friends bring.

Your youth was a time in your life that you can’t return to, but those old friends were there.

They know the details and feelings of moments in your life that nobody else does.  When you meet up with these people, it’s easy and comfortable.

It should be –

This is your own history in front of you.

And guess what?

It’s free!

The take away from this post might feel something like the old adage, “Money can’t buy happiness.”

It kinda is, but with a bit of an end run.

It’s a reminder to leave the angst of what you can’t afford alone.

In fact, don’t even feel anything for what you can’t buy.

Instead, appreciate the wonderful stuff we all get for free.

Because these are the best things.