When I was a child we used to go to a creek in Washington Park and swim. It was a great way to deal with the very hot, humid summers in the Philadelphia area. The humidity was often almost 80%. Of course our mothers told us not to go into the water. They said that it would be dangerous, and that we could drown. As children we knew better, of course (we thought we did anyway). None of us drowned . The water was too beautiful, clear, peaceful, and shallow for that. Something happened that changed that though.

One day a big university bought the park, and somehow gained control of the creek that ran behind it. There was a small spring that ran all the way through the park. People used to bring plastic jugs to a small fountain of spring water, fill them up, and take them home. The spring continued to run all the way through to the creek. They closed down the fountain, built a big cement pipe around the little spring, and began to discharged sewage along with it into the creek. We would go swimming farther up the creek, but we always knew what was right next to us down stream.

As I think of those days and subsequent days, when the whole park was ultimately developed, I realize what was taken away from the community. The community loved to enjoy the fresh breezes and the beauty of the park. Everyone loved the fresh spring water. People loved to swim in the creek. All of these things were taken from us. We couldnt enjoy the fresh air, clean water, or even the sound of the trickling brook or creek, because someone sold it out from under us because of something called progress, or urban development.

Some development is good. Some progress is good, but at what cost? What does over-development do for people? How much is enough? Sometimes people build new houses, larger buildings, and gather more and more clutter in their lives, because they think that having a lot of good things are progress, or because they feel that they have to get better and better things to prove that they are living good lives. They look outside of themselves, and at how they perform compared to others to determine their worth.

In such lives there is not satisfaction. In fact, we are often taught not to be satisfied. Things have to be getting better, or we are failing. To be successful we are taught that we must constantly look to the future trying to better our lives. Being satisfied anywhere along the way is understood to be dangerous. We might get satisfied and stop striving for more things. That means falling behind, and ending our personal progress.

I think that there is a different kind of progress that is more worth striving for then our personal external progress. The type of progress that I am thinking of happens on the inside. One of the major signs of this progress is being completely satisfied with oneself. It is learning to love yourself unconditionally, and then growing to be a better person because it is natural for a person with a pure heart to do so.

Progress on the inside means becoming the type of person that you would like to be. It is loving yourself just as much no matter what you own; learning to be happy when you have a lot, or dont have anything; realizing that you are beautiful and that you are creative, and that all of the stuffthe houses, the cars, the money, are there to serve you, not the other way around.

When you realize that you, and the quality of your life and character, are what is important, not what you own, you will not allow the pollutants of dissatisfaction and greed for more things, to pollute your senses. You will be like that small creek, in that beautiful park, giving joy to everyone, and providing sustenance for the lives of all of the beings that you contact along your long, but steady, path back to the ocean. You will return back to the source of life from which you came, just as every stream, every creek, and every river, slowly rushes back to the sea.