Love One Another

I heard a story yesterday about a woman who came from a very wealthy family.  Her father died when she was young, and her mother took over the family business and instilled values in her daughter regarding how to handle money.  When the daughter inherited a big sum of money at the age of 21, she immediately set out to use it to help people.  When her mother died and she inherited another vast amount of money, she took it upon herself to set the money free to go out into the world and do good for as many people as possible.  She did not see it as HER money, she saw herself as the custodian of it, for the greater good.   This reminded me so much of Michael.
This young woman, and Michael, both saw the whole of humanity as their family.  They did not separate themselves by gender, by nationality, by age, by state, town, or education, skin color or any other way that we choose to separate ourselves from one another.  If you think about it, all the ways we use to identify ourselves, are the same ways we separate ourselves from others.
Most of us don't have the problem of too much wealth.  We usually feel that we need to accumulate more and more, to provide for our families and to ensure their, and our, security in the future.  There is always a measure of us versus them.   Along with this goes a sense of not enough to go around.  If we don't take what we can, we may lose out.   It is very hard to overcome and change this way of thinking.
Even if we are not ready to sign our paycheque over to a stranger, we can start by sharing of ourselves in ways other than money.  We can give our time, our smiles, our talents and experience to others freely, not holding back for any reason.  We can let someone else go ahead of us in the supermarket line, let someone in front of us while driving, buy a coffee for someone behind you, hold the door for someone, say thank you, in this way, we become more a part of one another.  Not separating ourselves from others because of our differences, but uniting with them because of our similarities.  When I remember to do these little things, I find my day becoming joyful, and I feel closer to Michael as well.   I think of what he would want me to do, and I feel him applauding and laughing and spinning on his toes when I make a choice that serves someone besides myself.