The only wealth is life... a facebook post I read this morning

The only wealth is life.

James Allen once said, “People are anxious to improve their circumstances, but they’re unwilling to improve themselves; therefore, they remain bound.”  Now, if we want to have different circumstances, if we want to experience prosperity, loving relationships, peace, and joy inside, we’ve got to go inside and unbound ourselves and drop whatever is blocking our personal power. What I am talking about is the power of forgiveness.  
It isn’t always easy to forgive others because of what they did.  The ego makes a very strong case against them. And it builds up all of the reasons why they were so awful and why we’re going to resent them forever.  Did you know your ego will ruin your life?  And the world is filled with people who would rather be right than happy.  Some will go to their grave clinging to the idea that they would rather be right than happy, at least in their own mind.  Now is that what you want?
There’s a beautiful old saying that the only wealth is life.  Sometimes it seems that only animals know we’re actually here to be happy.  So let’s please think about releasing old baggage. Let’s let go of the past. And I know that sometimes people do things that seem terrible and totally unacceptable.  There are some incredible things that go on in our society, cruelty and thoughtlessness, and I’m not suggesting it’s easy.  I’m saying it’s necessary if we want to be happy and empowered people.  We clean up the past because an unfinished past leads to an unfinished future.
Many people have been through the long dark night of the soul.  Have you known some dark moments?  There’s a beautiful Chinese proverb that says, “Don’t curse the darkness.  Light a candle.”  Why don’t you be big enough to stand up and reach out to that other person?  Why don’t you be big enough to stand up and forgive?  It takes a lot of courage to do it.  It’s an incredible gift we give to ourselves because it releases our personal power and it literally sets us free.
Dale Carnegie once said, “If half a century of living has taught me anything at all, it’s taught me that nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”  There’s no peace in the world.  There’s no peace that just “fixes” people.  It’s tough to change. It’s especially tough to change dramatically.  People are creatures of habit at a very deep level.  Peace is inside of us, and as we create peace inside of us in a very beautiful way, our life becomes peaceful and love and support comes back to us.  I can not explain how it happens but I’ve experienced it, and I’ve seen it lives of other people.  We release all that beautiful, powerful living when we forgive.
Charles Dickens once said, “We forge the chains we wear in life.”  And if you want to let go of your chains, then you want to let go of your judgments and your anger and your resentments.  Regardless of what others did, it’s too expensive to you.
There are no solutions in the outer world, only inside of us.  I have found that acts of forgiveness and the act of dropping the judgments and the blames and the anger is simply life-changing.  And I do it along the way whenever it becomes necessary.
A.J. Muste once said, “There is no way to peace.  Peace is the way.”  Let’s go out there and let’s do whatever it takes to be at peace so that we can release our personal power and have the wonderful and glorious lives we so richly deserve.
By Dr. Michael Wickett