Blessing

“I invite myself to grow my sense of abundance by reminding myself to bless other people, even if it’s only by saying ‘I like your laugh,’ or ‘It’s good to see you this morning.’ Blessing can be asking a question about the other person’s life or family, and then listening with full attention to the answer.” -Meg Barnhouse

Bless someone today.

 

Receiving

“There is something powerful in genuine giving. And there is something powerful in truly receiving. Genuine giving calls for genuine receiving. And genuine receiving requires a willingness to be humble. To truly receive means we place a greater focus on the other than on self.” -Walter LeFlore

When have you practiced genuine receiving?

Flowing Stream

We can understand the abundance of the universe in two ways: as an invitation to complacency, or as an invitation to generosity. Much depends upon that choice. For if we respond with complacency—if we merely accept all the creative energy and all the love and sacrifice that have made our own lives possible, then the abundance of the universe comes to a stop in us…. It is when we respond to the abundance of life with gratitude and generosity that we become a part of that universal creativity. When we contribute our own energy to the flowing stream then it fills us and pours out of us to others, so that the stream is enhanced.” -Kendyl Gibbons

How do you choose to respond to abundance?

Communal Action

Here is a summertime truth: abundance is a communal act, the joint creation of an incredibly complex ecology in which each part functions on behalf of the whole and, in return, is sustained by the whole. Community doesn’t just create abundance—community is abundance. If we could learn that equation from the world of nature, the human world might be transformed.” -Parker Palmer, from Let Your Life Speak

When have you experienced a community creating–or being–abundance?

Overwhelming

Too often, I experience the great fullness of life as overwhelming. How will I do everything I have to get done today? Dog hair, unread magazines, kids’ dirty socks, etc., all seem to have little tiny faces to taunt me about ever keeping my environment anything close to… restfulness…. And that’s not even mentioning the paper piles, each beckoning me to spend time with them. -Meg Riley (CLF)

When have you been overwhelmed by abundance?