Feeling
Abundant
“We
cannot measure abundance by what we accumulate. Abundance is an
experience of the heart, a wind that blows through us like a flute.
There is nothing to hold onto—who can hold on to music. It floats
in the air. Our treasures are in the eye, the ear, in the heart that
feels the wonder of things.”
Wayne
Muller (Legacy of the Heart)
One
of my sons is a dealer of antiques and collectibles. From time to
time, he receives a phone call or a visit from desperate family
members: Mother has died and they have to clean out her house before
it can be sold. And Mother's house if full to the brim, running over,
stuffed floor to ceiling with who knows what. Usually the children
are simply overwhelmed and want someone besides themselves to go in
and clear it out. Sometimes careful records have been kept, an
inventory listing contents and dates of purchase or acquisition. More
often, there is simply chaos.
You
would be surprised at how often such houses are located in affluent
neighborhoods—neighborhoods where no one is living with scarcity,
including the hoarder. There are houses where something that started
out a hobby became an obsession; where someone became preoccupied
with collecting every single example of some bauble or other. Often,
the person doing the hoarding went without basic necessities in order
to finance their obsession. When they had acquired one of everything,
it became important to then have two, or ten, or hundreds of them.
We
always recognize these unfortunate people as 'sick'. We know excess
when we see it, but somehow when the excess is not stacked floor to
ceiling we miss it. When we are plagued with feelings of scarcity, we
ourselves buy more than we need, more than we can use. Then we spend
a fortune trying to protect all that we own with security systems and
weaponry. Here is a surprising statistic: Americans spend more on
weapons in one day than the United Nations hunger programs are
allocated to fight world hunger for a year. After the shooting in
Colorado, gun sales skyrocketed.
The
feeling of scarcity is a condition of the heart. No amount of
material accumulation can fill the hole in our lives that compels us
to compete, oppose, or battle for survival. When we realize that we
truly need very little to feel satisfied, the need to acquire and
protect 'stuff' goes away. The things that bring fullness are usually
exceptionally simple and free of charge—a hand in our hand as we
walk, a phone call from a child, a sparkle in the eyes of a friend, a
beautiful sunset. Money can't buy wholeness. For that we need love.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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