“He is richest who is content with the least, for contentment is the wealth of nature.” -Socrates
The abundance of nature arises from a judicious use of natural resources. It is through streamlined frugality and integrity that creation is always endowed with enough. What is enough? This is the main question, as man often disagrees with nature as to what is enough.
The inherent wisdom or sophia of the natural world requires a certain efficiency, an economical use of resources. The inputs and outputs of ecological systems, organisms and cells are finely tuned and ever-adjusting in a state of dynamic balance. Waste from one system (or organism or cell) is recycled and utilized as a resource in another. There is simply always enough to go around. That isn’t to say that animals do not suffer deprivation, sickness or death. However, each of these phenomena are always utilized by the whole system and will yield a benefit, whether that be to other organisms in the same community, or scavengers or bacterium.
If contentment can be defined as a state of balance, satisfaction or fulfillment arising from having enough, then nature is surely replete with it. As men with insatiable appetites and wandering eyes, it’s very easy and natural to be discontent. Eternity set in our hearts, our yearnings can and will destroy the planet unless we learn to be content with less. To divorce oneself from the endless cycle of consumerism and quiet the heart’s manic cries for more is to cultivate a subtler, quieter pleasure. This deep abiding calm grows, albeit slowly, out of coming into alignment with our natural environment and breaking ties with the manmade system of consumption for consumption’s sake. When dependence on a never-ending chain of useless or unnecessary goods is broken, the distractions that come from them also disappear. Time, our most precious resource, becomes less scarce and then one can discover true wealth. The wealth that comes not from things, but relationships.
Wise Pathways 