Clearing the Decks

M'kay. I'm trying to keep humble about this. Trying to just, y'know, flow with the universe and whatnot. But, I gotta tell you. I'm feeling pretty effin' smug.

Here is what peace of mind feels like:
WHOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!! (Yep, four exclamation points, people.)

And here is what peace of mind costs:
$0.00 2006 Taxes
$561.00 2007 Taxes
$147.00 Library Fees
$392.00 Property Tax to May 2008
$430.00 GST Q4 2008
$0.00 Address change for Alberta Health Care
And whatever my car tune-up costs next Monday

So, it was an expensive day. It was a productive day. It was a glorious day! I'm free. Well, almost...my car and I have Doctor's appointments to deal with yet. And I'm waiting on two pieces of paper for my 2006 tax return. But other than that, I am pretty much a fully functioning, fully responsible Canadian citizen.

I'd been harbouring some weird surliness toward our government. I will admit, I was justifying not filing my taxes (and therefore paying what I owed) because of some strange and misguided belief that I don't use government services as much as, say, an unemployed blind single mother of a chronically ill child. And therefore shouldn't really have to pay. Or something. Now that I think about it, I really don't know what my logic was there.

I'm just finishing up a lovely book called The Soul of Money (by Lynne Twist). It talks about money as flow. And about using your money to support your highest ideals and consciousness, whether it is earning that money or spending that money. It talks about giving as a form of increasing the flow of dough in your world. It also talked about how paying taxes can be a beautiful way to support the rest of your fellow citizens. That by paying taxes, I'm actually helping that single mom to have a better life.

I have never been so grateful about paying my taxes in my life. And I actually felt giddy leaving the library. I did, by the way, go with the, "I'm here to turn myself in" line. It got crickets to tell you the truth. There might have been a language barrier though. Those five ballet books were no longer in the system. So, I paid $147 for five books and a library card, and then promptly donated the books to the Sally Ann.

Here's hoping some little child gets all turned on by ballet flipping through those books. Here's also hoping that little child runs out and buys my book, so I can make back the $0.62 I get in royalties on that sucker. But realistically, after reading all my source material, why would that child even need to read my book? And buying my book means actually finding my book on a shelf somewhere, which is nearly impossible and is the main reason I don't write for that publishing company any more. And probably why that publishing company is thinking of having a bank foreclosure garage sale of all the other books languishing in the warehouse in cardboard boxes and not on the shelves of booksellers and bookbuyers.

Enough sad-sackery! Because today, friends, is not about pathetic publishing companies who overextended themselves and paid their authors chump change. No! Today is about clearing the decks. Offloading years of psychic energy and making room in my life and my bank account for glorious amounts of success and abundance.

The best part of today was that I wasn't attached to my money at all. My money had a higher purpose. That higher purpose was checking off items on a to do list, which in turn, allows me to be free in body, mind and spirit to go after my higher purpose: being an artist. Being a successful, joyous, well-paid artist. (I'm working on my affirmations.)

Dear readers, I can now speak from experience and not some half-assed 'Do as I say, not as I do' soapbox: completing your unfinished business is a wondrous affair. Right now, there is Irish jig music flowing through my blood. I'm serious! There is a party going on right here, right now. Get into it.