Today’s idea on the Red Road is from  Gaspesian Chief in 1676, to the American pilgrims.

“I beg you now to believe this, all miserable as we seem in your eyes, we consider ourselves nevertheless much happier than you, in that we are very content with the little that we have…You deceive yourselves greatly if you think to persuade us that your country is better than ours.”

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I took from this quote the idea that happiness can’t be measured in money, stocks, IRA’s or fat bank accounts. A good friend of mine – a writer – just got married, and suddenly found himself very comfortable. He had been struggling for some years with money, unpaid bills, financial pressure. He has two kids nearing college. Suddenly, he could buy what he needed, fix up his house, get a new car, take vacations, not worry about paying for college, not concerned about he might one day retire.

He invited me to lunch and he said he was very happy not to have to worry about money, yet he realized suddenly that he was happier before than he is now. The money didn’t really speak to a meaningful life, to his ambitions as a creative person, he has lost his drive, had trouble focusing on his work.

He was very content with the life he had, he said, there was struggle and purpose and meaning to every single day. Now, he said, it didn’t matter so much what he did all day,  buying stuff was not a better life.

Our culture tells us every day that money is what we need to be secure, the way we measure the meaning of our lives and our own value. Until five or six years ago, I had lots of money, I never had to worry about it. Then my world changed, and so did the world beyond me. I have less money and fewer things than I have ever had, yet I am  happier than I have ever been, I do not have any of the things I am told I must have in order to be secure and content.

It is a difficult lesson to turn, because every day in many ways we are bombarded with the opposite message, people telling us with urgency what it is need need to live in this world? I do not believe they are telling the truth.

How can this be?

The Gaspesian chief was saying something that is very important to me, reinforcing something I already believe. We often make the mistake of thinking we are happier than others if we have more than them, or that others are happier than us because they have more than we do. Happiness is internal, not external. It simply cannot be measured by money or “success.” I believe the soul is happy when it speaks for an authentic person, when it is connected to the natural world, to the love and community of other people, to the healing power of animals, to following one’s bliss, to a generosity of spirit,  to freedom from the enslavement of modern notions work.

We are happy when the creative spark is lit and casts it’s own light.

Whenever someone stands to profit from your own choices about life, it is a good time to stop and pause and ask, “what makes you happy?,” not “what makes them happy?”