The Greatest Luxury

Luxury is a state of mind. It is not material wealth in your life. It is not how much you have, how much it costs, and it is not power.

Understanding luxury is about letting go.

There is nothing more luxurious than presence. Living in the now and with awareness allows us to enjoy all the moments that make up our daily life. When eating, our food is satisfying, when bathing we are grateful for the water and the salves and soaps we have chosen to cleanse our body with, when driving marveling at the amazing ability to transport ourselves quickly and with comfort, everything around us can be imbued with luxury if we so desire.

As time goes by, my personal sense of luxury has become simpler. The theory of more is more, is gone for me.

Maybe the greatest luxury for me now is time and then quiet, two things that traditionally cannot be purchased. The more I am around what society deems as luxurious, the more I want to get away. The more I want to divest. The glamorization of excess has made luxury in the traditional sense unpalatable.

A single flower, a piece of crusty bread with salted butter, sea salt, a piece of music that transports my spirit, feeding Fred (my feral cat), hugging Sloane, seeing what Charlie is cooking, helping my mother, and at the end of the day having a cocktail with my husband…is the greatest luxury.