Rich Without Possession
Some mornings, I don’t notice the sun coming up. We arrive at the beach, and it’s grey or dark, and then, after twenty or thirty minutes, it’s as if someone flicks a switch, and the day begins. It’s no big surprise, and I realise afterward how much I take it for granted.
But this morning, the water glowed with hues of fire, and I counted every minute of those few moments following the sunrise. I stood extra still—watching, waiting, feeling. The air was a pale blue, and I could sense the shoreline waking up. The ripples in the water and the lullaby of the waves made me long for just ten minutes earlier, when it felt like the whole world was still fast asleep except for me.
There’s a kind of comfort when the whole sky lights up. I think about the people making breakfast or just opening their eyes to see the glow from their window. To some, it’s just another Tuesday, a morning rushed past without a second thought. But for someone out there, today is a birthday, a wedding, a first love, a great adventure. There are people experiencing things they never have before, and there are dogs who, even though they do this every morning, greet the ocean like it’s the first time—tails wagging, eyes bright, limbs folding over one another in boundless excitement.
It all sounds cliché, or perhaps it hurts to read because there’s also heartbreak and chaos in the world. But even amidst all that, it’s important to find stillness within yourself—to recognise that good exists, even if you have to create it yourself.
Today is a new beginning for someone. A first day in a foreign place, a leap into something unknown, a painful ending to make way for something else. For some, it’s just a quiet day. For others, it’s the day that changes everything.
Either way, it’s here, and we only have today until tomorrow arrives. So, see to it the best way you can.
Virginia Coyle once wrote, “I feel at ease and, in an undefinable way, at home, when dolphins are around. I now know when they are nearby before they even appear, then I dream after they leave.”
It’s everything I feel on these mornings, when half-asleep, I tiptoe barefoot to the water’s edge. I drink in the sun’s first light, and when I close my eyes, I am in a world of fire-coloured crystals dancing on the surface. The dolphins don’t visit every day, but when they do, the awe I feel is nothing short of childlike joy.
Some mornings, the sun hides behind the clouds, and the water is cold, making my feet ache. But it’s all unplanned. I can never predict the waves, and that’s what makes it so magical when I open my eyes and see them.
If you look around with love and stop searching for expectations, If you learn both to be and let be, If you can feel rich without possession, Then, perhaps, the whole world becomes yours.