Think ‘Gold fish’!

Long ago I had a dream about beautifully colored gold fish. Later I learnt that this can be interpreted to mean attaining wealth. ‘Good dream,’ I thought. The kids knew about my dream and kept waiting for that long-awaited richness; you know the drill; money, car, house…

Well, we don’t live our lives depending on dreams. If you want to achieve something you have to ‘wake up’. So, we remembered the dream, laughed about it from time to time and kept living, planning, working and hoping.

We were struggling, we were striving, we were being patient and we kept remembering the dream about the gold fish. Was it ever going to come true?

One day after a long tiring frustrating day at work I came home and flopped onto the couch. The kids were doing their homework while watching cartoons, giggling and joking. Their dinner plates, now empty, lay on the coffee table. An empty juice container had been hastily stashed under the table, and books, pens and note books were strewn around the floor.

I looked at the mess and a little voice in my head said, “Why don’t they clean up the mess? Who do they think takes care of things around here?” I felt myself getting angry, ready to say something. Then I looked at the kids again, at the mess, heard the noise of Tom and Jerry and their happy laughter. At that instant, between a moment of potential anger and a new thought, lay a realization that my gold fish dream had actually come true. It had come true while we were busy, while we were struggling and while we were waiting for it.

When I allowed myself to soak up that realization I felt a stillness; a moment of perception that has enriched my life ever since. I realized we had attained the wealth that was indicated in my dream long ago. Do we need any more wealth than we have right now? We have enough food, the kids have the opportunity to be educated, we have a place to live, we are safe, we have hope and we have each other.
It’s wealth, despite the mess.

I only needed to adjust my attitude a little to see the reality of what surrounds us. All the time I had been struggling and trying to survive, I was not only accumulating this wealth but living it, using it, and enjoying it. I just couldn’t see it.

Now my kids and I remind each other whenever any of us becomes negative. We remember the love we share, the hopes we nurture, the goals we work toward and the time we enjoy and we think ‘gold fish’.