Queries offered at Meeting for Worship on March 1: Does the pace of my life leave me time to pursue those activities that nurture my soul, my family, my community, and the planet? What helps me resist the urge to try to fill the spiritual emptiness I sometimes feel inside with busyness or consumer goods?

In the book Practicing Peace by Catherine Whitmire, the author quote Matthew 6:19-21. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (pg. 93 – “Practicing Peace in our Everyday Lives with Plain Living and Simplicity.”

Later in the chapter, she quotes David Yount (2003) thusly, “. . . I came across a study by a social scientist whose specialty is happiness. What he confirmed is that happiness is not a consumer good – not a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Rather, happiness lies in its pursuit, in the process of purposeful living.”