The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist

All quotes from Lynne’s book

The economy is a subset of ecology.  Every single thing -- food, clothing, electronics, homes and office buildings, cars and the fuel to run them, even this book you hold in your
hands -- is made from resources that come from the earth. 

We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, exploring, complaining, or worrying about what we don't have enough of.  We don't have enough rest.  We don't have enough exercise.  We don't have enough work.  We don't have enough profits.  We don't have enough power.  We don't have enough wilderness.  We don't have enough weekends. 

Scarcity as a chronic sense of inadequacy about life becomes the very place from which we think and act and live in the world. 

Once we define our world as deficient, the total of our life energy, everything we think, everything we say, and everything we do -- particularly with money -- becomes an expression of an effort to overcome this sense of lack and the fear of losing to others or being left out. 

Sufficiency is an act of generating, distinguishing, making known to ourselves the power and presence of our existing resources, and our inner resources.... When we live in the context of sufficiency, we find a natural freedom and integrity.  We engage in life from a sense of our own wholeness rather than a desperate longing to be complete. We feel naturally called to share the resources that flow through our lives -- our time, our money, our wisdom, our energy, at whatever level those resources flow -- to serve our highest commitments. 

In indigenous economic systems, the centering principles are those of sustainability and sufficiency.  The values of sharing, distribution, and allocation, not accumulation -- are the way of life. 

Wealth shows up in the action of sharing and giving, allocating and distributing, nourishing and watering the projects, people, and purpose that we believe in and care about, with the resources that flow to us and through us. 

No matter how much or how little money you have flowing through your life, when you direct that flow with soulful purpose, you feel wealthy.  You feel vibrant and alive when you use your money in a way that represents you, not just as a response to the market economy, but also as an expression of who you are.  When you let your money move to things you care about, your life lights up.  That's really what money is for. 

In the context of sufficiency, appreciation becomes a powerful, intentional practice of creating new value through our deliberate attention to the value of what we already have. 

When your attention is on what's lacking and scarce -- in your life, in your work, in your family, in your town -- then that becomes what you're about. 

A you-and-me world is full of collaborators, partners, sharing, and reciprocity. 

We think we live in the world. We think we live in a set of circumstances but we don't.  We live in our conversation about the world and our conversation about the circumstances. 

Everyone of us creates a legacy in the way we live now.