Abundance And Prosperity
Connection As Currency
Most of us live with a scarcity mindset.
“They have a better life than me because they have more lavish vacations.”
“I’m never going to have enough.”
“I don’t have time to plan ahead.”
“I can’t give this away, because I might need it again someday.”
But it’s not our fault; our culture has bred this into us. From the first moment in life that we begin interacting with our world, we’re fed advertisements of things. Of possessions that promise to fill the aching hole in our hearts for wholeness. The promise is: “If you obtain this, you will finally have enough.” Then when we finally obtain that thing, it immediately loses its value and a new “needed” thing emerges. And so, the cycle continues.
And in this way of needing, obtaining, discarding, needing, obtaining, discarding, we lose so much. We become detached from the things we obtain, allowing us to exploit its value with little to no remorse.
But there is a different way to look at the things we obtain. We can connect in such a way that we discover we likely already have everything we need (obviously exceptions for some people), and in fact have much to give. And in this space we birth abundance and prosperity.
For the past couple of years, I’ve convinced my partner to take a family trip right when the kids get out of school for the summer. It’s my birthday around the same time, so the trip always feels extra special to me.
This year, we started our family trip in Crestone, a tiny (by tiny I mean 139 residents) spiritual and funky town in southern Colorado. My good friend and her family joined us, and we were just finishing up dinner outside after a long day of hiking along the Cottonwood Creek trail. The heat from the sun had finally started to fizzle out, and the dry desert winds were sweeping in. The string of balloons my friend and our children had hung violently whipped in the wind above our heads, which were no match for the prickly trees they were attached to. The sudden and unexpected popping of balloons sent us back inside laughing.
Then my friend brought out my birthday cake. More specifically, the cake she had personally baked for me. And even more specifically, a cake that she couldn’t even eat. You see, this cake recipe is my favorite cake recipe and contains all-purpose flour and gobs of refined sugar. Being gluten free and slightly more conscious of what she eats, this cake she baked was strictly out of love. And I felt that. There might not have been 38 candles on the cake- but let’s face it, that’s fine. I wouldn’t mind getting a couple of years back. And I may (or may not) have had two servings.
My partner revealed his gift to me; a handmade, wooden altar table I had been wanting. He does woodworking in his spare time (spare is being used loosely here, he’s also a full-time nurse and father of two kids), and amidst his recent overwhelmingly large project, he carved out time to create something special for me. It was stunning. I could just imagine my little Buddha statue sitting on top, with my Tibetan singing bowl and blessing cord I’d received during my mindfulness meditation graduation ceremony on the shelf below.
I felt so loved. So full. So…like I really had everything I needed.
It’s moments like these, of generosity and gratitude, that we find connection, abundance, and prosperity.
In The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer, who is most known Braiding Sweetgrass, she details the contrast between our current culture’s market economy and a more sustainable gift economy. She argues quite eloquently that while goods are exchanged for currency in our market economy and therefore are more likely to be exploited, goods exchanged for connection in a gift economy lend themselves toward gratitude, abundance, and indirect reciprocity.
Kimmerer details, “The next stage of human economy will parallel what we are beginning to understand about nature. It will call forth the gifts of each of us; it will emphasize cooperation over competition; it will encourage circulation over hoarding; and it will be cyclical, not linear. Money may not disappear anytime soon, but it will serve a diminished role even as it takes on more of the properties of the gift. The economy will shrink, and our lives will grow.”
Our lives will grow. It certainly would require us to modify our understanding of the word “successful” and “rich.” In moments of my life when I have been the giver, I have felt a sense of richness and connection. And that seems more achievable than the currently ill-defined and difficult to obtain “richness.”
Now if I’m being completely honest, this concept is even difficult for me to understand. But I can’t argue with her logic. If I’m given something as a gift, I’m much more likely to take care of it than if it is something I bought myself. And things that aren’t cared for are more easily discarded and end up in landfills. And when I’m on the receiving end of gift giving, I feel the spirit of generosity in myself as well. The tricky part, perhaps, is recognizing the gift in everything. After all, those berries I purchased from the store with my own money were a gift from the Earth.
The more I look at my possessions and contemplate all the causes and conditions that brought it into existence, the more I feel connected to and appreciative of the natural world. Henceforth, it is beneficial to me to care for you and to care for the Earth.
The altar was more beautiful than I could have even imagined. A gift not only from my partner, but from the Earth as well. The wood grain told a story of a life once lived. Of those who may have found shelter in that gorgeous, white oak tree. Of the soil where the roots dug in and years of sun and rain.
And that cake was delicious- perhaps sweeter than usual.
Or maybe the extra sweetness was from the gratitude of the gifts.
Parents and caregivers: Join me for my in-person mindfulness meditation classes designed for you! I have started teaching on Monday nights in a yoga studio in Fort Collins. I’m planning to eventually host this class virtually as well!
Heather such great thoughts here. Thanks for sharing