When we think about death we think of it as the end of life as we know it, and yet this is the beginning of freedom. When we die our souls are freed from all earthly things that keeps us captured. We are responsible for being prisoners of our lives here on earth, because we are forever chasing after more wealth in our lives. We never have enough money.

We are often convinced that once we have a lot of money we will be happy, but is this really true or is it a false elusion that keeps us from being prisoners in this world. If you have to die today are you happy with what you achieved in life, or was your life just a rat race chasing after riches? I recently suggested to my dad that he and my mom must take sometime off and go overseas. He told me that he can rather use the money in the bank in a better way. Sadly if I look at his life he has millions of dollars to show. All of it safely tucked away in a bank account, but he has nothing to show for the life he lived. He chased after money all his life never to have enough. The sad part is that when he passes away his wealth will be left behind for others to enjoy.

I cannot help but to ask myself what life is? My husband and I travel a lot. We go out of our way to spend time with the kids and take them on overseas trips. Matthew is three years old and he has been all over the world. I know he might not remember it but we have the photos that we can show him and we always go back to places we enjoy. Yes we are not staying in a three story mansion or driving a Bentley but if I have to die today I hope that my children will remember the time that we spent together as a family, something I never had as a child. What I remember of my childhood is my father being a frustrated man always too tired to spend time with us and always shouting and screaming at us.

How many of us are actually living a life where we are too busy chasing after material things and not actually seeing the brighter and more valuable things in life? What is more important to be remembered as being rich or to be remembered for the person we were.

We have just celebrated Christmas and we are now standing at the dawn of a new year. Maybe in the New Year we must chase after family time and freedom to live our lives and enjoy and be grateful for what we already have instead of chasing money and live a dying life.