Pot'O Gold.....

"Your task is not to find a pot of gold, but to help fill this kettle. For some, significance is given by birth, but for most, including you and me, meaningful significance can only be found in service to the other." (Ronald C. Arnett)

On this luck o' the Irish day... many of us may be wishing to find that elusive pot of gold to make everything in our lives better. We think about the proverbial rainbow and the kettle at the end, carefully guarded by the leprechaun, and wish that the pot was ours. Wouldn't it be grand? Riches beyond measure, no need or want for any material thing? For many of us, it seems that the sudden discovery of a fortune would reverse the bad fortune and lead to a life of happiness and comfort......


But would it really?

If you had every "thing" you could possibly want, would it bring you happiness? If you suddenly won a lottery jackpot, and could ONLY spend it on yourself, would that bring you fulfillment? Would you feel more important or like you had more meaning?

The quote by Arnett isn't necessarily referring to financial riches and fulfillment. We are on a quest to find ourselves, find our meaning, and find the significance of our own existence. What this quote is saying, is that if we are only looking to fill up ourselves, we will come up empty. It's sort of like filling a piggy bank that doesn't have the plug in it. No matter how many coins we put in it, when we pick it up to shake it, we hear nothing.

However, when we turn the focus on others, our significance bank starts to fill. With each connection we make with others, each deed we do, each time we acknowledge the humanness of another, each time we at least try to find common ground (putting coins in the other's bank), our bank begins to fill. When we stop focusing on how much we have or want, and focus on what the other needs, we find our significance, our meaning, our contentment.

So today when you find your four leaf clovers to make that wish of finding a pot o' gold, try wishing that same wish for someone else. You'll be amazed at how rich you will feel.