Riches-No Money Required

Don’t you love that intoxicating feeling when you slowly put something in your mouth that you know is going to amaze all of your senses and completely satisfy your hunger? You know as you are lifting the spoon or fork up to close your eyes and savor before you even taste. Then when you have whatever it is in your mouth, you move your jaw ever so slightly to make sure that the sensations reach every single one of your taste buds and you assure yourself that you can feel the flavor past your gut and down to your feet.

I just had this experience. This deeply satisfying and richly rewarding experience. With a group of very old and very treasured friends. I felt this experience on every physical and emotional level and absolutely down to my toes. It was, in a word, magnificent.

I owned my big company for 18 years. During that time, I wasn’t able to spend time with my friends or do any work cultivating relationships on a deep or truly connected level. My children were small and needed me, my company was small and needed me more. My life was needy. I allowed my needy life to get in the way of the life I needed. In the way of the relationships I needed.

I hadn’t seen my friend Carol in too many years. She lives in a city that I frequent on business now so we really have had no excuse for not spending delicious time over a beverage or two over the last year other than the neediness of both our patterns. Twenty plus years ago we lived in Tulsa together and shared the company of a third musketeer, Doug. While Carol and Doug have stayed close, Doug and I unfortunately have only connected over Christmas cards and letters.

Doug is going through a rough patch and decided he needed to spend some time with Carol and friends in Carol’s city. Carol and I connected and without hesitation, I made plans to be there and surprise him. What a magnificent surprise it was! What a stupendous day and evening we had. I chuckle now just thinking about the memories we shared from way back when and the new ones we made that day. We shared and made memories that no one and no experience can ever take away. We had a day that was lush and deep and everlasting, full of both laughter and soul searching conversation. You would have thought that the three of us hadn’t been parted for as long as we had. You would have thought that we had never let life get in the way of the connection that ran so deeply like a current between us.

This richness comes with deep regret. Regret for the time wasted minding the store of my business instead of cultivating my friendships. I can only imagine how many business owners out there are doing the same thing right now. Working late into exhaustion and neglecting the bounty of their friendships. Working unorganized and missing out of the wealth within their own families. All of my business owners will now be instructed to add a dose of richness to ‘their time’. Because I see now that without the richness, there are no riches. Without the richness, there will never be any deep satisfaction or true feeling of success.

How can we be truly satisfied if we don’t taste and savor the richness of our relationships down to our toes? How can we be truly successful if we don’t treasure this opulence?