This weekend I attended Vancouver Pagan Pride Day. It was a wonderful opportunity to see how different traditions celebrate and connect to the Divine, and I am grateful that I was able to go, in spite of injuring myself within 10 minutes of arriving on the site, but that’s a different post.
I led a workshop while I was there called “Energy Basics: Grounding and Shielding”, which went very well, even if it was a bit rushed. At the end of the workshop I passed out some business cards for Walks Within so that the people who attended could download the meditations I shared in the workshop (the grounding one is coming soon, I promise!).
One woman asked me what was involved in the life coaching. I told her that I help her connect to her values and life purpose, raise her awareness, and keep her accountable to what she says she wants to do. I also shared a little bit about the Elements of Abundance program I am working on to help people earn their living from their passion.
The discussion turned to that old lie I keep bumping into: Money is evil.
Once upon a time, somewhere back in my churchgoing days, I was told that money is the root of all evil. And since I was told that when I was an impressionable child, it has stuck with me. Money, or as my husband would correct me, currency, is not evil. It is an inanimate object. It is not inherently good or evil just as a stone is not good or evil.
For the record, the actual quote from the bible is:
For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
~1 Timothy 6:10, New Living Translation
Money is a form of energy. You can use it for good or for evil, although that implies that there is a way that is right and one that is wrong, and I don’t totally buy into that anyway. How you direct that energy, how you earn and spend your money, is what is important.
Somewhere along the line, many of us got off track with how we earn our money. I know I certainly have. I hold a job that I am not passionate about because I need to cover the basic needs for myself and, more importantly, for my family.
Don’t get me wrong, there are parts of my job that I enjoy. I do my best there, because I believe in making my piece of the world as beautiful and positive as I can. It is still not my passion. My passion is seeing other people grow personally and spiritually. That’s why I am a life coach and a priestess outside my 9 to 5 job.
So many people I know have a job that is outside of their passion, including the young woman I was talking to at Pagan Pride. I totally understand the motivation to earn money to cover your needs from whatever source is available. My question is, what are you doing to fulfill your passion? If you’re not doing anything, what is one small thing you could change to bring you a little closer to your dream life? You’ll be amazed at how much richer your life will be when you engage your passion and purpose.
Blessings,
Mary
I’m so glad you included the *actual* quote. It’s the LOVE of money, or want of it, that causes so many problems in the world.
i found i was putting off my passion. however it was for a good reason. as i attended art school, their focus was more on perfection, and selling and it being fine art with a poltical message. i got tried of the always doing to please others, sacraficing my enjoyment, and it resulted in lesser work, because i had no passion in it, it was rushed to get it done to get a grade. my last semester i finally came to peace with myself i was not going to sacrafice my personal work just for a grade and i was overly more happy with the end result even if it was’nt entirely finnished in my books. then came summer. i tried several times excited to be able to do any art i wanted without the art crtics behind me of my school days, however i found i was’nt inspired or even felt the desire to create. at first i was concerned, then i just gave in. i realized i had needed a break. now i am picking back up my art, on my own terms, while the goal is still to return to art school in a year’s time, and for now focus on my writing passion as well as do my artwork outside of school, i know that when i follow my passion, and not sacrfice my personal self in my work, to please others, for money, for a grade, and to be true to my spiritual purpose i am much happier. i realize when i return to this school i will still do my fantasy spiritual work, however perhaps my writing courses will give me a better outlet to express my words to the images, giving it a strong message that school craves, and hopefully will enhance my work greatly.though i do have to say now doing my art without people of the art world to give me technical skill input i miss, so i think the overall balance i am trying to achieve is doing work i am passionate about, describing it in a scholarly way, and having art critic input, with taking what is useful and discarding what i don’t find useful in a unbiased way and asking those not in the art world their ideas, more from a spiritual balance to create pieces that are going to be the most satisfying for me. now if on this learning journey i can discover how to do all of this and gain abundance in this or my second career choice of alternative healing and combine both practices as well as my spirituality and make enough to live off of it and be my own boss that would be my ultimate goal…:)
Phoenix. recently posted..Hello world!
And that’s *why* I included it. Too many people value money higher than other things, and that’s where the challenges arise.
Phoenix, it sounds like you had lost your passion for a while, or got it confused with what others said your passion was supposed to look like. Sometimes you do need a break to find the passion again. I’m glad you’re getting it back!
How much has it cost you to ‘buy into it’?
Michele – to ‘buy into’ the lie that money is bad? Quite a lot. Thus the reason I have been working to change my beliefs about it. I understand that I can do a lot more good in the world if I am not worrying about how I’m going to pay my bills or feed my family.