What matters most in life?

When I moved into my new office last spring, I immediately befriended my neighbor to the left of my space who was a sewing machine repairman. We frequently stepped into each other’s shops and said hi, exchanged a few pleasantries and went about our business.

A month, ago, one Monday morning, Phil, my neighbor, never showed up. His Singer store remained locked. This was highly unusual. He was a one man operation with no employees, worked 6 days a week, and very faithfully so. And we usually knew about everything he was up to.

Two days passed, and no Phil. Myself and neighbors were a bit concerned, so I called his home. His daughter answered and said Phil had passed away on Sunday night.

He was 79, and lived a full life, but still, the surprise had a sobering effect.

The family hired a liquidator to dispense with Phil’s possessions. Two weekends ago everything in his house was sold. Last weekend, everything in his store--stuff accumulated over decades—was carted off by strangers in a few hours. The store now stands bare empty, with not even a sign of Phil having been there.

This blog is not about death and coping with grief. I know Phil is alive and well in Spirit, prospering in Mind and happily so. I have no concerns about Phil, although I would have liked to give him a hug good-bye before he left so quickly! Aside from that, I’ve been pondering the rapid liquidation of all his worldly possessions in a mere few hours.

Phil spent decades putting together a home and building a business. In moments it was all gone. All of it! Not a trace left behind.

I saw a similar thing happen when my mom passed. My brother and sisters and I had to clean out her house to sell it. It didn’t take long, a few days, in fact, to undo what mom had spent decades building up. How fast the dissolution happened deeply impacted me. What I had grown attached to over a lifetime was suddenly gone, practically overnight.

Watching the rapid liquidation of Phil’s estate had a similar impact. From a matter perspective, one day, all looked well. The next, it was all gone.

I gain strong spiritual lessons from watching such events. This one in particular teaches me to not put my faith in the build-up of matter. Why would you when you realize it will be all gone someday, and probably rapidly so. We need a place to live, books to read, furniture to utilize, and other things to get by with, but the real substance of life is not in the things we accumulate. It’s in the spiritual life we live.

Life is not in matter. And substance is not in things that can be sold and carted away. There's more to existence then a list of worldly goods that can be sold to the highest bidder in a few hours, I figure.

The essence of Life is divine Love lived, joy expressed, generosity shared, spirituality gained, God understood, Truth demonstrated and gratitude given.

Life and its spiritual goodness is forever, but material things are not.