An Abundance of. . . .

“Abundance” is a word that always has been pretty foreign to me.  The way I grew up, we didn’t have a whole lot of anything.  As a matter of fact, one of my favorite dinners when I was a kid was noodles and ketchup–and it still is.  I never realized when I was young, though, that we had noodles and ketchup when we didn’t have any money with which to buy “real” food.  So what was our out-of-money meal became one of my favorite dishes of all.

But when you grow up in a family that focuses so much on lack–lack of money, lack of food, lack of clothing (but never a lack of cigarettes!)–it’s easy to stay focused on lack for an entire lifetime.  What a shame this is when the world has given us so much abundance for which we can be very grateful, if only we’ll make the effort and take the time to recognize and appreciate all that’s there!

In my life, I have some great abundances.  Friends, family, co-workers, food, health, gadgets, technological devices, movies, music, books, students, information, opportunities for education and work. . . and the list can go on and on.  And what do I do sometimes?  I focus on the very few things that I don’t have in abundance, such as money.  And I do this even though I firmly believe that God and life will take care of us, all the time.  I’ve gone through times of trials and tribulations, just as everyone has, but the point is that I’ve gone through them.  And everything has turned out okay, usually even better that I would have dared to hope.  The blessings that I can truly count as mine represent an abundance that is deeper and richer than most kings and queens that ever have been in the world could have counted as theirs.  I have more to be thankful for than the vast majority of the other people on the planet, yet I can still focus on what I lack.  Pretty amazing, isn’t it?

I hope not just to recognize the abundance in my life, but also to appreciate all that I have, all the time.  It’s a lot.  And I hope to keep my focus on that abundance rather than on whatever I may perceive as lacking.  If I can do these things–and it’s only a matter of changing my perspective and keeping track of my thoughts–then I can make my life truly rich indeed!  It already is rich, but if I’m not living like it is, then I’m doing a great disservice to life!

Where one sees lack, lack manifests.
Where one sees abundance, abundance is supplied.

Darwin Gross