squirrels are us.

Squirrels and people are the same. Both horde. I have been watching squirrels scurrying around with little flourishes of bushy tails to horde up larders. They horde for survival. People horde money mostly because they like it.

I love money. Lots of pots of it. Filled up and flowing over. Bank vaults full of it. Secret safes stuffed with it.

But I hate money too. I hate what it does to people, the way it makes them selfish and self centred. I hate the way it makes the world spin as if life does not matter. I hate the way it creates two classes of people. Money talks and I hate the the sound of its voice that drowns all other voices. I hate the way it break up homes, destroys relationships, seperates parents from children. I hate its lure and power. I hate its seductive strength. I hate its validity in today's world.

Yet it's true - I do love it. Because money can be turned into love. It can be turned into life. It can be turned into beauty. It can be lavished. On those who matter most, and those who need it most.

Lavish doesn't mean going out and buying useless expensive and meaningless stuff like a posher car or designer label bits. It means buying something that can bring someone joy. Even flowers! (There are a few people who I would like to buy flowers for regularly) A musical instrument, a book, a beautiful plant. Something meaningful. Something that can make a difference. Not dead gifts but living ones that do something. It means buying someone who is hungry a good meal, clothes for someone who is in rags, a house for those without a roof over their heads.

Some folk know what to do with their money.

I remember being gifted money to buy books by friends - a couple who had barely enough money to survive and who had just received some cash. I refused. They insisted. The rationale was that "the money we get is not for us to spend on ourselves, but to spend on those we love". Another friend of mine, saved up money, built her own house, and then worked extra to save money, to give away and bought her domestic helper a house. She could have spent it on herself...but she didn't. Still another friend of mine worked nights on extra shifts, in order to see a friend, who was depressive and broke, through his postgraduate studies. My friend actually lived on a shoe string budget in order to see the friend through, and paid his fees and living expenses (in the UK!)

It is sad that often money is a "me", "my", "I" thing. It enters a "me cycle".

Money combined with love and selflessness be a wonderful thing to possess. I am never going to be among the rich! So I guess (just settle for fame and scandal, especially since the latter is easy to come by!). But I sure would like to have a lot of money to spend it lavishly on loving.

Money is for loving. It is so that we can be spendthrifts for love. Money is for sharing. It is for holding lightly in our open palms so that it can be shared with those who need it.