Love, money and peace.

Hi all of you out there and good afternoon. I was going to say 'good morning' but then realised that my mind has been tricked into thinking it's still the morning. Well it bloody isn't. No, it's 15:23pm!! I woke up at an extremely ridiculous time today, dear reader, 11:00am. Too bloody late!! I vaguely remember that I woke briefly at 8.30 but somehow managed to fall back to sleep. The next thing I know, 11.00am. 'Shit!' I thought to myself, I was going to accommplish so much today. Forget that. I've done nothing apart from reading the newspaper which brings me to my reason for writing.
I was fascinated by the true story of a young man who gave up his inheritance. To cut a long story short, he had plenty on a material level but desired more on an emotional level. His aim...to find true love. Sadly, when he found love, the person he loved couldn't reciprocate for whatever reason. As a reaction to this, he found peace. A different sort of peace that we equate with life. A peace that consisted of indifference. He gave away everything he owned and went to live in North Africa. He now lives on a meagre existence and earns small amounts of money from the books he writes.

I was touched by the story in many ways because as he put it, 'the one thing he so desired, he could not have'. Life therefore, for him, felt meaningless in some respects. Indeed, it's all very well having material goods but essentially life's not about 'material goods'. No, life's about feeding the soul and the heart and when these aren't fed, something in the human spirit dies.
I wonder how many people, in reality, feel this way in our increasingly individualistic society we now live in? How many people, rather than choosing a different way, are actually isolated through no fault of their own? Isolated because we live less and less on a collective level.
One thing's for sure for me, I have a dream about travelling when my youngest son grows older. I have a dream about living in a more sharing, collective environment. Indeed I dream in some ways now about packing up and heading off to some far off land. Although, in reality I've always had this dream and have, in part, achieved this in some respects.
There is dear reader, something truly fascinating about giving up everything and just walking. Walking to an unknown destination, to an unknown life.