Yesterday, a visitor came into my office and chatted a bit. She talked a bit about how she had cut back on expenses because of the slower economy, but was overjoyed to understand that her quality of life was still the same.

Aw, I thought. That’s terrific! She really gets it. She had learned to measure her quality of life in spiritual terms, and thus was spared any sense of loss from a drop in monetary income.

She told about a group of her friends who liked to gather periodically over lunch, chat, catch up on business and support each other in their mutual work. The last time they met they selected a restaurant that was less expensive because they were all dealing with smaller budgets. But they all had just as much fun together, learned just as much from each other, and left afterward just as happy as ever. There had not been a drop in the quality of the experience just because less money was spent for the meeting.

There is a valuable spiritual lesson in this story. People might get into the habit of believing that their standard of living is measured by the expense of the clothes they buy, the restaurants they eat at, the size of their house, and how much money they have in the bank. But life teaches us differently. Quality of life is not measured materially. It’s measured spiritually, by the qualities of Love we express.

I remember the early days of my marriage. My wife and I had very little money and lived very modestly. But we were grateful for what we had, did not long for more, and focused on living a spiritual life. We were in love, enjoyed our time together, did what we could afford, and that was enough.

We have more stuff now, but I can’t say it makes us any happier. Happiness truly is spiritual, born of God and experienced in the way we live our life, not through things we own or might buy.

The amount of money circulating through the economy may be down, but our potential for living a high quality of life is not!

Life is spiritual, not material. The joys of life are spiritual, not material.

We may spend less money for the time being, but that doesn’t mean we have to express less joy, love and gratitude. Those come in abundance from God, and the ability to manifest them is freely given to each of us. They give life quality, and can be lived as much today as yesterday.