Do you consider yourself a wealthy person? Most folks would not call themselves wealthy because they think wealth consists of having huge amounts of money and possessions. We think of the billionaires and millionaires who have vast holdings and estates around the world and since we do not have these things, we certainly are not wealthy by any means. Yet it is quite possible that we are far wealthier than we realize.

  Did you know that many of our native cultures measure wealth not by what a person possesses, but by what one feels able to give away? It is true. The amount of things one owns is not the true measure of wealth for these peoples. Wealth is measured by the ability to give away freely the best that they own. These native peoples celebrate what they call potlatch. It is a kind of great giveaway feast. They purposely choose the finest of their possessions to give away to others. They do not give from their surplus; they do not give leftovers, castoffs, or worthless trinkets. They do not give the kinds of things that we might give to St. Vincent de Paul or the Salvation Army or some other Thrift Store. No, they give the things that they love the most, their beautiful things, and their precious things. They believe that by sharing their best, they are truly giving themselves away and they believe that this is the only gift worth giving to another human being or to God.  Freely giving yourself away to others is what makes a person wealthy in those cultures. They call it big-hearted giving. It's not how much a person owns but how big-hearted they are in their giving that constitutes true wealth. Thus, a person living in a tiny hut can be wealthy if they are big-hearted in their giving; and, in the same way, a billionaire living in a grand estate, but who is not big-hearted in their giving, may truly be the poorest person in the world. Wealth is a matter of giving not having. 

  So, by the standards of those native peoples, are you a wealthy person?