This morning, I woke up and was given ten gold coins. They weren’t actual gold, but just as precious. They were the minutes and hours I got to spend today. Would I waste them, or would I spend them wisely?
Like money that slips through our fingers, almost without notice, those minutes can wash through our hands like water if we don’t pay attention. The verb pay comes from the meaning to bestow, to give. Whatever we do in our lives, we offer something to it, either our time, attention or even dismissal.
Time is priceless. And it is finite. You only have some, but you can never know how much. It’s like being given a bank account with a hidden balance. You can use your ATM card to purchase things but never know when the dreaded, insufficient funds message will appear.
What would you do with that card? Would you buy everything you could get your hands on, or would you ensure you only spent it on things you needed? Would you be generous or miserly?
If we valued our time like our money, we might use it more wisely. If time were more valuable than money, we might use it to connect with our loved ones and do more things that bring us joy.
This capitalist society has changed most of us into worker bees who focus on spending those coins to earn money. Do you know the life cycle of a worker bee? They are born to work, living anywhere from six weeks to six months, and then they die. A human worker bee is not designed to ask questions, create anything of its own, or enjoy its life. They are there to serve the higher purpose of the hive. And the higher purpose of the hive is to make money for itself, not for the worker bees.
Many of us are convinced we’ll find happiness if we do it all like we’ve been told. We go to school until we graduate, go to university (if our parents can afford it and have been following the plan properly), get a good-paying job with long hours and a lot of stress, get married, have a family, raise the family, pay for the kids’ school, retire, and then die. And that’s if it all goes to plan and nothing mucks it up like illness, divorce, or death.
What happens when it doesn’t go to plan, or even when it does? Is there joy? Maybe, but usually, the job has either killed one or three of the marriages and made it impossible to have close relationships with the kids. And when illness happens, like cancer, the hopelessness sets in.
We are all given ten gold coins daily, and how you spend them is up to you. You can use excuses and say, “But I have no choice.” That’s not true. Even if you’re physically confined, you still have choices — at the very least, how you approach your day. You can choose to be a victim and be angry or choose joy no matter the circumstance.
Worker bees are programmed to serve the hive, but you don’t have to be a worker bee. You can live an authentic life and spend your precious coins where they will create treasure. The kind that can’t be burned up or foreclosed on.
Every morning, you receive ten new coins. Will you spend those coins on mindless scrolling or invest a few in making memories with those you love?
