As I’m walking through my yarden in the late afternoon, the sun slants through the trees in golden rays making dappled patterns on the lawn. I stop, I take a deep breath, and I appreciate the beauty that is right out my back door. For a few moments, I revel in it
There are beauty and richness woven throughout my days and nights. They’re there whether I take notice or not. 
I want beauty and richness, so I choose to look for it. ​

Doctor West's words are as real today as they were nine years ago during Occupy Wall Street. A well-lived life, as I continue to remind myself, is not only about taking responsibility for my life and my happiness. It is also predicated upon the help I provide others in attaining their happiness. 

Beauty adds richness to all things—the natural beauty of blue, cloud-filled skies, or the rustle of leaves in the breeze. There is a beauty in the sight, sound, and feel of the outdoors, which elevates an ordinary moment to a bit of bliss. 
 Art and music, movement,  love, and kindness all initiate a similar feeling of uplift.
 The act of beautifying is a foundation of my philosophy of Having a Rich Life. My Sweet Loving Man(SLM) teases me that all areas of our home must look like a still-life painting. To which I reply, “Absolument.” 

Though, really, why shouldn’t everything be as pleasing to the senses as I can make it? By this, I mean our home, my physical appearance, my personality, my car, a picnic. It naturally brings me joy to make it so. 
Any room can be clean but drab, my appearance proper, but uninspired, my affect can be appropriate but not welcoming. Stepping beyond the ordinary and echoing the divine aesthetic of nature leads to the richness of life. In a rich life, all things have form as well as function.

 The acts of devotion found in beautifying daily life embody the art of living. It is through the gracious touches that decorate rooms and give elegance to attire that I realize richness. Living artistically, aesthetically, and creatively inspires a welcoming home and brings cheer into the lives of others.

Within the Corona Virus Quarantine, lays the optimal set of circumstances to reevaluate life. The Pause-separation has forced people all around the world to take time away from jobs and stay home. The result is one of life's most precious resources, the primary quality of a rich life, and essential individual freedom- time.There is latitude in the spring of 2020 to assess values, try on slow living, and see if it feels luxurious.  

Each day I have a choice to make a list of my blessings or make a list of the failings in my life. My life view determines what kind of life I'm having- a poor life or a rich life. 
 
When I focus on the list of things that are wrong with my life, and I've spent years in that place, my life is awful, I feel defeated, angry, powerless. 

At some time in the middle of last night, the number of items on our porch "waiting to be put away" crossed my invisible, but very real line. Stepping out onto the porch this out this morning to feed the birds, I was driven to put everything in its place and sweep.  All while still in my pajamas.

Having a clean, well-kept home contributes to my feeling of richness in life. More specifically, not having a fresh, well- kept house causes me to feel the opposite- dirty, poor, scruffy.