Achieving Abundance: A Guide to Getting It, And How I Got It!
by Lael
One day, a few weeks into a class I’ve been taking on Financial Freedom, I found myself idly surfing the web engaging in behavior that I deemed “unspiritual” and wasteful of my time. Then I turned my attention to that week’s homework and read the following: “God is Abundance.” Remembering another teaching of the class, that each of us is God individualized, I made a simple substitution. “I am Abundance,” I said once and continued saying over and over again as I got up from my studies and headed out to the library in order to return a book.
I often resort to mantras (short one line prayers repeated over and over) when I feel in need of a spiritual and emotional shift. That day’s ad hoc mantra identifying me 100% with the quality of abundance proved highly and delightfully effective. On my way over to the library, I came across some clothing that a neighbor had put out for anyone to take. This is a common practice where I live, and in a neighborhood where many are quite wealthy, it behooves a passerby to check out the cast offs. This is exactly what I did. Among other items, I found some especially lovely cashmere sweaters. I decided to pick up a plastic sac at the library and retrieve the sweaters in on my way home.
While at the library, I perused the twenty- five cent shelf where patrons can support the library by plunking down a mere quarter each for donated books. What should I see among the battered, older volumes but one shiny brand new paperback entitled: Achieving Abundance: A Guide to Getting It
. All this time, I’d been repeatedly declaring inwardly: “I am Abundance.” But only at this moment did I realize that first my used clothing find and now this timely book find were expressions and verifications of that statement. With this amazed realization, my mood shifted entirely. All feeling of self-judgment and remorse for “wasting” the earlier part of the morning completely evaporated, and I was booted over into a zone of bliss and even greater receptivity.
Not only am I abundance just like God, we both have a great sense of humor. The sweaters I found that day were not just cashmere. According to the label, one was made of 90% soybean as well. This killed me! Soy! I am a vegan. Now, I’m wearing tofu too! In my estimation, only rich people dress themselves in fabrics so rarefied they are made of beans! And the Universe, knowing how very rich I am, could only chuckle, hand me my new tofu sweater and agree.
On my way home after picking up my lovely new-to-me sweaters, I shared a joyful exchange with a city worker driving by in a truck. “Terrific day!” he shouted out beaming a big smile. I grinned, waved back and enthusiastically agreed. As I turned the corner onto my street, something else that felt miraculous occurred: an interview subject for a documentary I’m making appeared and cheerfully encouraged me to schedule our shoot. More connection, more abundance!
The book I manifested that day is a collection of essays on the topic of abundance. In one, “Maximal Deliciousness,” life coach Nancy Mindes tells what she, a New Yorker then working in the fashion industry, learned about gratitude during and after the September 11th attacks. In the wake of that event, she now knows better to savor and deeply appreciate the simple delights of connection, kindness, creative fulfillment and sensual pleasure in her daily life. Strikingly, Mindes received this wisdom only after she gave herself over to her grief. Before that, she suffered post traumatic anxiety attacks until a wise emergency room doctor prescribed that she, “burst into tears whenever [she] felt like it.”
Reading “Maximal Deliciousness,” it occurred to me that the special openness and fellow feeling that blossomed in New York City in the days and weeks following September 11, 2001 can be cultivated everyday. In my experience, they are most likely to occur when I remember the truth about myself, perhaps by bearing in mind and repeating that day’s mantra. I am abundance. How about you?
| 12/28/07
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Enlightenment
