Portrait of a Hartlaub’s Turaco

 In Birds

Turacos are my favorite birds. It is such a thrill to see this beauty for the first time. You can never get enough of these amazing birds!

I have been thinking about the topic of money versus meaning recently. I am not sure why but my observations have been that most meaningful work do not pay well. The ones that pay really well generally are those that help others make more money or time, in whatever form that may be.

There are many passionate people dedicating their time to conservation efforts and nature preservation but they are paid like interns. If possible, they are asked to be volunteers and not paid at all. Beautiful, meaningful work that helps the needy, the sick or the orphans are mostly volunteer missions with no remuneration.

Why is there such a notion that good, caring and kind people have to look like they went through so much pain and hard work to be legit.

On the other hand we have people going along with their lives, donating once in a while to charity. Do they really care that the forest are burning? Or that the animals are dying and becoming extinct? Or that the glaciers are melting and the ozone layer is deteriorating? What about fresh water for children across the other side of the planet? Most probably not for most people, unless it is a commodity that has monetary value or significant returns.

Comfort or meaning? Which one do you value the most? The luckiest people seemed to be able to do meaningful work and still live a comfortable life. From what I have observed, these people are a minority. Most people would love to change their life in a heartbeat, if sustenance is never a problem.

Not many people understand that some of the best things in life are free. Precisely because it is free, there is no perception of value. Nobody wants to pay for the trees or the air we breathe, or the animals that roam our lands, nor care about the sunlight that shines on our faces everyday; until the day it’s all gone and we realize what a great impact it will have on our lives. People will try to pay for love, thinking that they can buy that stuff. Pay for love and that’s what you get, a commodity, and you can replace a commodity at any time.

What seems to be diminishing in this world is grace and gratitude, the only true evidence of love existing in the universe. You can never pay back the sun for the life it has given you, even if you tried. Imagine the sun asking for a payment, much like how you should pay your electricity and water bills.

Listen to the songs of the birds. They are not asking you to buy their concert tickets. If you can understand why they are singing, you would start to understand grace and gratitude. Grace and gratitude might not make you rich on the outside, but it will definitely change the way you see the world. Once witnessed and understood, life will inevitably become beautiful.

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