Luxuries of Living on the Planet Today

History was my minor in college and political science one of my majors, along with English.  I was very curious how humans lived and handled their challenges throughout history.  It didn't take long to see that the same things happen over and over again.

What I cannot help but always remember is that in earlier times, across our planet, poverty was the norm, except for the few, and that today, in a lot of the world, especially in the United States, we are, in general abundantly wealthy.  Yet, most people do not stop to notice that.

Today, we have all sorts of luxuries:

- To live wherever we want to live on the globe.  (In earlier times, there wasn't even transportation to get you to another part of the globe--and of course there was the time before people knew that our planet was a globe--let alone be free to not just travel but settle down wherever you want to.)

- The choice of jobs.  (In earlier times, no way could you have had that choice.)

- To enter stores filled with goods and so many choices as to boggle the mind.  (Yup, in earlier times, you had to make your own stuff.)

- Time for leisure, meditation, contemplation.  (Trying to get food was so pressing, it left no time to think.)

- Because of this time we've attained, we've evolved.  Our consciousness is different.  We have the luxury to change ourselves, to grow, to evolve.  (There was no time to think about self.  The choice to volitionally change did not even exist.)

- Our bookstores are filled with books to help us evolve.  We have thousands of teachers helping us move to the next level of consciousness.  (Excepts for priests and shamans who ministered to the general populace, there was no one there to help with the inner struggles.  The general population was illiterate.  When books started to be published in the 15th c, only the wealthy could afford them.)

Every day I am keenly aware of all that we have.  Our state of mind is not crowded--for most of us in the U.S., I hope--with how do I get a crust of bread today; we get to choose--all sorts of things for our daily life.  How fortunate we are.  What unprecedented opportunities we have to become more of the divine self that we really are.