Abundance!

Ask most people about abundance and they’ll talk about monetary or material wealth – and few of us believe that we have enough of that in these days of rising inflation. There’s usually one more item of clothing we’d like to buy; or the prestige brand of coffee rather than the `own’ brand; the theatre ticket in the front row rather than up in the gods; the new car; the holiday; the good quality, brand new baby goods rather than second hand ….. and the list goes on. If any one of us were to make a list of the things we want (rather than need) we’d probably fill W.H Smith’s entire stock of A4 notepads. For me, a VW campervan and a swimming pool would be pretty high up on the list. I don’t need either of them, but they’re part of my dream life.

Dreams, however are not reality. Something to aspire to, perhaps, but they are not tangible; they do not exist in the here and now. And all any of us can do is to live in reality – live in the NOW. (For those of you who follow my blog posts, you’ll notice that there are recurring themes and I make no apologies for this. These are things I feel passionately about: living in the moment, taking responsibility for ourselves and our behaviour, gratitude, paying it forwards etc. )

So what do the title of this post, Abundance, and living in the now, have to do with one another? I suggest that abundance comes in many forms, not just material wealth. Abundance means a large quantity of anything: love, good health, friends, nature, birdsong, flowers, work, food, energy – absolutely anything at all. And, if we look at what we have in our current lives – in the here and now – we will often find that we have an abundance of a lot of things.

I am currently undertaing the Deepak Chopra 21 day Abundance Challenge: a 3 week course of tasks and meditations to increase abundance in my life. I decided to do it because, although I have an abundance of many, many things such as love, friendship, nature and food, I have had a scarcity of writing work for several years – and I want to change that. I am a writer to the very core of my soul – nothing gives me more fulfilment and satisfaction but, since my husband’s diagnosis of cancer almost 10 years ago, my writing work has been very thin on the ground. And (unlike having my own private swimming pool!) this is something I can do something about – right now. I’m writing this blog, which gets me in a creative frame of mind; I’ve set aside 3 days a week for writing; I’m working on 2 separate writing projects (no spoiler alerts here!!!) and I’m noticing how full my life is on almost every other level – and I’m paying it forwards. Because I believe that paying forwards rather than paying back increases abundance in all areas.

Last week I was given three bunches of flowers by someone I’d never even met. She gave them to my husband to give to me and they were, and still are, beautiful. So today I decided to pay it forward by buying 5 bunches of daffodils and handing them out to random strangers in my local High Street. And I could not believe how difficult that was! The first three were accepted fairly quickly and gratefully but, oh my days – the last two! I was amazed at how many people either said an outright no! Or simply walked past without even acknowledging me. Anyone would have thought I was handing out Coronavirus. I felt sad for those people who were suspicious of a free bunch of daffs. I hope that whatever created their mistrust, is quickly overcome so that they can open up to other opportunities – and free flowers – in the future.

I’ve heard people say: what you give out, you get back. But I’m not sure I subscribe to that philosophy. There are people who give out love energy all the time, yet still get pooped on from a very great height. I prefer to say: what you receive: give out three fold. That’s not saying that, should you get mugged, you go out and mug three other people! That’s not what this is about at all. This is about kindness; spreading love energy; paying it forwards; creating abundance worldwide. It’s the only way to counter the negative, hostile energies that seems to pervade parliament, the White House and other centres of world politics at the moment.

Most of us, especially if you’re reading this on a PC or smartphone, are materially rich beyond the wildest dreams of many people both in Britain and developing countries. So I highly recommend noticing, and being grateful for, the abundance we already have in our lives: the roof over our head, the food on our table, the birdsong in the morning, the flowers blooming after the winter. And, if there are areas of scarcity in your life, look at how you can create abundance, either from that source or another. Abundance, be it material, energy, love, health or anything else, seldom appears miraculously out of nowhere: it requires dedication and work to create it – but, most importantly, an openness and willingness to accept what’s offered rather than what we specifically wanted.

I’ll leave you with a photograph of a brief moment of sunshine between the rain storms last week. I loved the light on the branches.

Have a blessed and abundant day – in all its forms!