Rich Living vs. Living Rich

I think that I want to do a series of posts on Rich Living vs. Living Rich on Less. Yes, you can live rich on less and never achieve that full rich life. You can save money, you can travel the world, you can get STUFF, but without the experiences and without living artfully it just doesn’t have the same MEANING.

• Living Artfully – This doesn’t mean that you need to be a Picasso or a Degas. When I use this term, I’m simply talking about the way that I approach life.

I have a friend (who I write about fairly often) who lives with the “poor me” syndrome. NOTHING in her life is good enough. She doesn’t have enough money, hasn’t met the man of her dreams, hasn’t, doesn’t, can’t…why me, why me? I look at her life and I say “how lucky” she has enough to pay her bills, she’s lived all over the United States, etc. BUT – no matter HOW MUCH MONEY SHE HAS, she’ll always be POOR, because she hasn’t learned the art of life. That it’s not about how many or how much – but, it’s about experiences, embracing life and making it your OWN.

I live for experiences. It’s the interaction with people, nature, places, etc. that fills me with joy. I used to keep a journal. The process of writing would help me sort through these experiences and help me to feel them again and again. Now, I only use my journal when I travel. I try to capture how I felt, what I did, moods, smells…things that fill me, make me who I am. You can see by the photos of some of the pages, that it reflects the feelings that I had at the moment.

What is it that YOU do that makes your life RICH? How do you approach living? Are you living a rich life?

By the way, all of the photos used here are actual photos of a journal from my time in France in 2006. More than actual photographs, they bring me back to the FEELING that I had when I was writing/experiencing. Photographs bring back memories of what a place LOOKS LIKE, but my journals help me to remember my experiences.