True wealth is not of the pocket, but of the heart and of the mind. ~ Kevin Gates

What makes a person rich? Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet by the standard definition of having a lot of money, they are all very rich. Of course we can go the other way and be purely philosophical and rely on the old standard, and consider anyone who has their health to be rich. But honestly, I don’t think either of those are a good measure of a person’s wealth.

Let’s be clear, having your health, a job, a place to live, enough money to take care of the things you need are the basics we all strive for, and without them it’s hard to consider yourself rich or wealthy by any definition. But happily for most of us, we have these basics.

I truly believe that many of us are richer than we realize, because for me, what makes us wealthy are the collection of amazing and precious moments that we accumulate in life. The birth of a child, their first words, their first steps, the first time they ride a bike without training wheels. That amazing gift you got that you always wanted, that first kiss with that special person. That crazy night in high school or college when you and friends did that crazy thing that turned into an adventure and worked out, likely because you didn’t get caught. These moments are always experiences, sometimes there are mementos a picture or some small item, but the real currency are the memories and feelings of those times.

I consider myself wealthy for this reason, I have spent my adult life seeking out experiences that would create special moments and memories for me. Some people call this pursuit checking off items on a bucket list, but I call it living a full life. And I’m really fond of how someone labeled me at one point due to this attitude, they called me a sampler of life. I consider that to mean someone who makes an effort to experience as many things as they possibly can. This fits me incredibly well and is a characteristic that I’m quite proud of.

We can all do this, it will take different forms and shapes depending on our lives. For some of us it will be achieved by spending a lot of money, for some of us it will occur in exotic places all over the world. For some of us it will be done inexpensively and for others close to home. As I’ve traveled through my life I’ve done a little bit of both. The key issue is desire, desire to make these things happen. That means when you have the spark of a thought, to put yourself in position to potentially have one of these moments, you have to go for it. Life is short, and at the end of it we regret the things we didn’t do. These moments can pass you by if you’re not careful and you only get so many chances at them, don’t miss them.

This idea has been on my mind a lot lately, as someone who seeks out these types of opportunities the pandemic has really put a damper on these types of moments in my life. I seek out a lot of these opportunities through travel, whether it’s to visit family across the country or to find adventure. So this week, particular after having, due to COVID, miss out on flying to New York and trick or treat with my little nieces and nephews I needed to plan an opportunity. So I reached down into my bucket list and planned a trip to Mexico to hang out with grey whales in February in San Ignacio Lagoon. I hope to recreate the picture below with me in it.

I desperately need this trip, it is my hope that it is my first step in a true return to some kind of post-COVID normality, whatever that looks like.I hope you’re finding similar opportunities my friends and making the time to do them. ~ Rev Kane