“You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Till It’s GONE”: How Deprivation Sharpens Our Idea of Value

Don’t it always seem to go

That you don’t know what you’ve got

Till it’s gone…

The legendary Joni Mitchell (to whom the Counting Crows don’t hold a candle!) said it best: “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”. 

GK Chesterton, the great English essayist, cultural critic, and Christian apologist of the early 20th-century wrote something very similar in his article, “On Being Moved”. In it, he said: “For it is the point of all deprivation that it (deprivation) sharpens the idea of value”. 

The joined and timeless wisdom of Mitchell and Chesterton will be the focus of today's meditation. 

Use it to cultivate a sense of gratitude, to expand your consciousness, to calm your nerves, and to reflect on the objects–be they little or big–that you possess, but seldom appreciate. 

I hope that you enjoy this episode. 

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Affectionately yours,

Daniel