Last weekend, my wife and I took our teenagers on a jetboat ride down and up the Snake River in Hell’s Canyon on the Idaho and Oregon State borders. It was a grand time and we saw many beautiful works of nature to admire and learn from.

A rider on the boat was a special treat to study. She was a local, took the ride twice a year she said, owned a small Bread & Breakfast Inn in a nearby town, a wind-swept barren place with a population of 25 or so, I expect, from what I saw when we drove through it. And she loved the river, the mountains and the hills, the water and the rapids, and especially the animals that lived all around.

After spotting some wandering deer on the shore and mountain sheep in the ledges on the high crags, she commented to us, these are sights I see all the time from where I live. And she relayed how deer walked into her yard, wild sheep crossed the roads on her drives, and other critters frequented her acreage. “I guess I’m especially blessed,” she remarked, in summing up her lot in life.

This was a very modest woman by worldly standards. An individual whom I suspect has worked hard over the decades for what she has. Her husband passed on a few years ago and she has learned to continue her work and his too.

She appeared quite content with who she was, laughed easily, and took joy in simple things that many people would take for granted.

When I heard “I guess I’m especially blessed,” my ears perked up because I knew what she meant. She didn’t need fancy cars and big houses, cruises abroad, diamonds on her fingers and the latest fashions on her back to be happy. Watching a grace of God in the form of a deer casually strolling through her yard on a still peaceful morning had infinitely more worth to her than a closet full of new possessions.

This is a woman who is not living a life of frustrated want. And from the history and background she told us, she is not rolling in money either. Far from it. She is living a life of gratitude for the things in life which come without price, cannot be bought, and are free for all to benefit from if they take the time to appreciate them.

May we all learn from people like this what constitutes true wealth.