The Best Deal

 

"Abundance is the quality of life you live and quality of life you give to others." - J.K. Rowling

 

When shopping, you look for the best deal, right? The cheapest thing in the kind you are looking for. You are a fool if you don't. Look out for yourself or you'll be a target for others who will take their advantage, sucker! Right?

I've always felt perplexed by this attitude. Now I am starting to realize why...

 

I don't count my change. I only count change if it seems like politeness requires it. It's not because I'm too lazy to bother, but because I don't care. Besides I figure mistakes will happen in either direction and balance out. It is true I find haggling unpleasant. I'd rather chat about something meaningful. Why do we even need money, I wonder, but let's save that question for later.

I don't even tend to know how much money I have in my wallet. And when I shop, I do not always care about getting the best deal (for myself). For example, I happily pay more money for organically grown produce, even if I am buying it for someone who not only would not buy it for themselves, but scoffs at there being any difference. To me there is.

 

When I buy organic, or locally made, or even order on the internet some thing I just adore, if I pay more than if I "shop around for cheapest best deal" I actually do benefit myself more than any other way I could buy.

 

Let me explain: I ride upon a wave of gratitude wherever I go. I go around feeling secure in the expansive knowledge of an infinitely abundant universe. It feels completely harmonious and natural to let a little extra splash around me as I go, just like all of the rest of nature. Nature lets the cup overflow. And when my cup is empty, more can flow in, and always has...

 

I nurture my organic wholistic vision of the future when I buy organic, literally growing that future! I support the local economy and so, brighten up the neighborhood around me when I pay more for some neighbor to make that thing I need, and the world gets polluted less for not having to ship it far. What a great investment portfolio!

And when I do use the interweb network to find that special, beautiful or obscure thing I adore, I feel such a joy to share with that faraway artist who I found with the blessing of our newly acquired global shared brain web. Such a messenger and supply system even the greatest kings of history could never even dream of!

 

The mind set engendered by our flawed money system does not make sense. If I "save" money now by buying the cheapest thing or grabbing the best deal, (instead of investing it in a better world at every turn), how can that be a benefit to me or anyone. It is flawed logic. As if the universe were static and unchanging, and at the end of the pretend money game I, personally, will win, with the biggest money pile. Even money does not work like that. It too flows, especially when we use it in harmony with the All.

 

By my data profile, you would have to call me lower middle class, or even poor. But I feel richer than royalty! I go around with the attitude that every little thing I do will, can, and does create ripples, large and small, with effects that actually make a difference! This expectation tends to be self fulfilling. So I live and move in a self created bubble of grateful abundance.

 

Nor does it hurt that I don't have extravagant needs. Beyond taking care of basic needs, I feel fulfilled and satisfied by doing creative actions rather than buying and having. I don't need much to be entertained in this place. It is a dynamic place, sparked by intention, powered by my desire to make a difference, and guided in tiny steps by a different calculus than getting the best deal for myself. I seek the tiny, cumulative, atmosphere-shaping ways along my path to get the best deal for all of us, including me of course by definition. I believe there is such an option at every choice point.

 

I do not think of myself as a generous person. I have simply found that there always is a way through to whatever I may need that also aligns with the good of all, if I merely bother to check when a choice presents itself. This way of doing my job, that of making a difference, just feels good and is logical!

 

But I still get afraid. I still sometimes get sucked in by the twisted currents of insecurity that our money system tries to suggest. You do not have to accept the mindset of everyone out for themselves. Our monetary system, which pits all of us against each other, is historically a relatively new kind of economy, arising from patriarchy. And there is a gift lurking in the confusion of egos contending....

 

This moment is gifting to us our current cultural opportunity to experience individuality to the utmost edifying and alienating extent, so we can begin to come back together and join at a more conscious, creative, harmonious, self actualized level, creating ever greater collaborations. Self transcendence can come only when we first have self possession.

 

As we move toward being more able as a society to help everyone have access to supplying basic needs, (an almost trivial task compared to our other accomplishments as a civilization), we can finally free up more time and energy for the more ephemeral endeavors that bring delight and joy. I cannot understand why anyone frets about technology taking away menial work and freeing us up to do fun stuff!

I wonder what the world will be like when a critical mass of people embrace a more expansive way to think of wealth and the money system shifts to engage with it.

 

 

"The world is already yours - why try to conquer it?"

― Rasheed Ogunlaru