Abundance vs. Scarcity

In my the week ending November 30th Center for Action and Contemplation completed a weekly series on Economy: Old and New.  A link to the weekly summary follows:

     Economy:  Old and New:  Weekly Summary

Many of this week's meditations were of interest to me but the one I want to talk about today is:

     The Gift of Sufficiency

In this meditation, it starts outs with notions of scarcity and abundance and I will quote a few things as I include thoughts about my own journey down this road.  First I was raised in a German family that always had enough but for many years we rarely bought store bought clothes.  Only once a year did we get a new Easter outfit and of course a hat to wear to church.  We never felt rich but again there was always enough to go around and to even help others in our community.

Having lived through several periods of scarcity in my life I certainly appreciate the feeling of having enough.  Abundance was never a concept until later in my life.  One of the quotes from the meditation on Sufficiency is:

"We each have a choice in any setting to step back and let go of the mind-set of scarcity. Once we let go of scarcity, we discover the surprising truth of sufficiency. By sufficiency, I don’t mean a quantity of anything. . . . Sufficiency isn’t an amount at all. It is an experience, a context we generate, a declaration, a knowing that there is enough and that we are enough. . . ."

I have been on a journey to understand Abundance for many years and am still learning.  My late husband, Stu, once was asked by a non-English speaking friend what the word "abundance" meant.  It did not translate in to his language.  I have always remembered his answer...it was one more than enough.  With this definition the difficulty is defining what is "enough" and that is different for each of us.  

In 1997, Stu and I declared we had "enough" money to retire and we sailed off in to the sunset on our 40' sailboat.  Certainly an adventure of a lifetime and one we would not have traded for any amount of money but we soon grew tired of spending "just another day in paradise" as he would say. 

We always say we flunked retirement the first time but that is when we found and fell in love with Habitat for Humanity.  We spent nearly 10 years volunteering and/or working for the international organization in the USA and even a few trips around the world.  I still volunteer at the local level with Habitat.  It helped us see that scarcity and abundance are a mind set.  A choice that we all have to make every day.  

Another quote from the Sufficiency meditation says it best.

"Sufficiency as a way of being offers us enormous personal freedom and possibility. Rather than scarcity’s myths that tell us that the only way to perceive the world is there’s not enough, more is better, and that’s just the way it is, the truth of sufficiency asserts that there is enough for everyone. Knowing there is enough inspires sharing, collaboration, and contribution. . . ."

I have worked with many non-profit organizations over the years and most of them live in a scarcity conversation.  Having observed this many times, it is easier to spot when my own conversations or the people around me switch from having enough to scarcity conversations.  

One of the things I am sure of is that my life works best when I am of service to others and share my gifts freely.  In closing, I will quote the article one more time.

"No matter how much or how little money you have flowing through your life, when you direct that flow with soulful purpose, you feel wealthy. You feel vibrant and alive when you use your money in a way that represents you, not just as a response to the market economy, but also as an expression of who you are."

You may enjoy the whole reading or even the whole week which were shown in links at the beginning of this post.  

May you know and experience abundant wealth, blessings, love, joy and peace.