Omnia habet qui nihil concupiscit.
(Maximus Valerius, Facta et Ddicta Memorabilia 4.4.1)

He has everything who desires nothing.

(pron = OHM-nee-ah HAH-bet kwee NEE-hill kohn-koo-PEES-kit)

Comment: This might be a corollary to the proverb earlier this week which said
that greed grows with one’s amount of money. Both have in common the human
attachment to things or money, and the degree of our attachment measures out
the degree that we lose or cannot enjoy or cannot appreciate those very things
that we have.

It occurred to me the other day while driving home to my house in this north
Georgia neighborhood that the trees around me were as gorgeous in their fall
colors as I could ever remember seeing. Right now the shades of red and
yellow, orange and green and brown are so deep and vivid that they take my
breath away. Some are so alive with colors that they don’t look real! And I
wondered: do Georgians around here appreciate this? Do we get so caught up in
our desires and compulsions that we miss this free show of beauty? I suspect
we do.

On any given day I can and often do get caught up in what I don’t have or what I
do want. More than just a few minutes of that is time really lost from
appreciating what and who is in front of me.

Not a bad theme as we approach a holiday in this country that is called
Thanksgiving—one where I also suspect very many of us exercise many human
reactions that do not include gratitude.