The best things in life are free Marta

The best things in life are free

The best things in life are free? This proverb suggests that money is not important. You do not have to pay for the best things in life, which are friendship and love.


We have all heard that the best things in life are free. I believe that` s true. However, the free things that others provide come at a cost to the providers. What is the cost that the providers of free things must pay? That certainly depends on how valuable that free thing is...

Some people want to dine on the most expensive of foods in fancy restaurants. But the best food in the world, I think, is bread baked in your own oven at home, and vegetables you have grown in your own backyard. There is so much satisfaction in being a person who makes things for themselves, and enjoys simple pleasures.

No matter what age we are, we like to see that something we really want is free. Many people, thinking they are expounding a wise saying, respond to something that's free by saying, "If it's worth anything, it isn't free." Or you hear, "If they say it's free, you better watch out because there's a gimmick and you're going to end up paying through the nose." Or you hear, "Nothing in life comes free. There's always a price to pay." I disagree with this.

Some of the best free things in life are the wind and the rain. In Vancouver, we have plenty of both, particularly this past winter. Perhaps a meteorologist could explain it better than I, but when two weather fronts collide, the wind will surely come. And when the moist air off the Pacific Ocean rises where it meets the slopes of the North Shore mountains, then we are blessed with the long grey days of rain for which Vancouver is famous. Whenever I hear about the many countries facing drought (including our own Prairies), I remind myself of the incredible blessing of these free resources.

Another beautiful free thing is the sound of my children's voices. Not the children themselves, of course, for they are an expensive luxury. But their voices, now that comes to me for free. They want so much to be grown up now that that small sound is something no payment may ever measure. A child's voice is a lovely thing, and free.

Best of all, among all the things that are free, are the thoughts that fill my mind as I pass each waking day. There is no price on the fleeting notions passing by as I drive, alone, home tonight from the writing class I teach. Sometimes, I am almost home before I realise that my solitary reverie has carried me off into some other world. It may have been something someone said to me that day, or a smile, or a unique event in one of my student's lives; whatever it is, we cannot buy it with money, that is for sure. Our thoughts belong to us, requiring nothing more than our continued breathing and are therefore always free.

So, we receive these "things" for free, and they are among the best we have in our short time living on this Earth. Imagine the pleasure I might have while standing in the rain, hearing my children talking together, thinking about life in all its beauty.