Scarcity versus abundance

It's Sunday morning again, and I've been thinking this week about having enough. Enough of what, you ask? Well, just about everything. And what I really wonder about is how you determine that.

Some of us are old enough to remember our parents, who were raised during the Great Depression, admonishing us to finish the food on our plates, to think of the starving children in Africa, or China, or somewhere other than here. In America, I was taught, we are fortunate and have enough for a good life. But it's not true; it depends a lot on how you were raised, and what the fortunes of your family might have been. Some people don't have a place to live, enough to eat, or any way to change their circumstances. Right here in America. And some are fortunate but don't know it.

When I was little, I never even gave a thought to any of this. We always had a place to live and food on the table. It seems that if you never go without, you can't see what you've got. It's like air; if you always have it, you breathe in and out and never consider what it would be like not to be able to breathe.

Or like health. You don't even consider what it would be like not to be able to run and play, take long walks, pick up your kids, or grandkids, until one day when you just can't any more. The whole problem with health is that it is invisible until you don't have it, and regaining health is pretty basic to enjoyment of life.

As I've gotten older, I realize I've had my share of abundance. My health is good, especially when I compare myself to others my age. And I've got a roof over my head and enough good food to eat, maybe even too much food sometimes. But I don't always see these things, I take them for granted. I've got a TV and cable, a DVD player, I buy bird food and watch all kinds of birds dine on my front porch.

Today I'll get in my car and drive over an hour to Snohomish and jump out of airplanes for recreation. Although I won't do that as much as I used to, partly because of money and partly because I just don't have the desire any more, I know I'll come home renewed and refreshed. Last Thursday I hiked up into the High Country with my senior friends and saw a beautiful glacier and heard it rumble nearby. I carried a backpack filled with gear for possible weather changes. I came home from that hike renewed and refreshed. I've got a good life.

If I wanted to, I could compare my life with others and feel bad about it, because I don't own my own home, my furnishings are rather basic and bare, both of my children died before me and I don't have any grandchildren, never will have. My car is almost ten years old now, and my income is not great and is fixed for the rest of my life. It will dwindle in value and I'll do without things that today seem essential. I'm not getting any younger, and my good health won't last.

The point of this post is how important my mindset is. What I focus on makes all the difference in whether I feel blessed with abundance or cursed with scarcity. Nothing outside of me changes while the inside of my head goes around in circles. One day I get up and feel great, excited about life and what I've got ahead, and the next day I groan as the clock shows it's time to get out of bed and face the day.

I will choose abundance. I will be happy for today's blessings. Tomorrow, maybe, I'll feel differently. We all know people who see the bright side of life, and those who will never see it, no matter how much abundance flows into their lives. If my state of mind is what changes, rather than my circumstances, I'll choose abundance every time.