By Dorothy Estes

One day, you've got a beautiful promising bubble that looks like it will fulfill all your dreams. The next day poof! It's crashed to the earth, nowhere to be found.

So goes the stock market.

As my funds have dwindled away about as fast as they skyrocketed, I've had a little time -- and lots of incentive -- to think about what has real value, what is lasting, what is untouched by the ups and downs of the Dow and the NASDAQ.

The other morning I got some fresh insight as I was climbing the subway stairs. I heard a voice say, "I found someone needier than me."

Who could be needier than he?

I looked to find the owner of that voice. He was sitting on the subway floor, unshaven, in tattered clothing, obviously hoping to pick up some change from hurried subway passengers, maybe enough to have a decent lunch. Who could be needier than he?

I listened. He said to his friend (obviously as free of a stock portfolio as he was!), "A guy needed a quarter for the parking meter. So I gave him one."

I looked at that face. World weary, haggard, but full of the satisfaction at being able to help someone needier than himself.

As I walked along, I realized that the guy who needed the quarter for the parking meter no doubt had more assets than just the car. He might even have had a stock portfolio. Had it taken a dive? Was he now feeling so poor, he had to ask for a quarter from a homeless man? I suppose it really didn't matter.

What did matter was that this homeless man, probably without even enough money for supper, had lent a helping hand to someone who at that moment was in need. And he looked like he had loved doing it! Doing good for someone else warmed his heart, satisfied him, maybe, for a moment, even made him feel rich. His richness couldn't be measured in dollars and cents. It was the richness of Spirit, which is available to everybody.

As I continued on to my office, I thought about how permanent good is, how unfailing. Maybe my stocks were going up and down, but the goodness I had to share couldn't be depleted. Real goodness is spiritual, straight from Spirit. It feeds both the giver and the receiver.

I thought about how satisfying it is to do good -- even just a tiny bit of good. How much real treasure can be found in sweet, even momentary deeds of kindness. How goodness is the asset we all have an abundance of -- how it can increase as we freely spend it on others.

In that moment, I felt sure that homeless man was very, very rich -- and it had nothing to do with the money in his pocket. It was a priceless lesson, and I know I'm richer for it.

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