Month: October 2015

“Live from abundance;
Utilize with economy;
Share in advance.”
―Geoffrey M. Gluckman

How does practicing economy help you experience abundance?

“Oooo, shiny!” we say of those things that distract us from the task at hand. The world is so full of things that are trivial, but attractive—messages on Facebook, videos on YouTube, leftovers in the refrigerator—that draw us away from what we really mean to do.

What draws you back to what is most important to you, in the face of all distractions?

Baby birds peep and open wide their enormous mouths, calling to their parents to bring more, more. That might sound greedy, but evolution has designed baby birds with wide mouths and shrill voices to enhance their survival. Sometimes you just have to be really clear about what you need.

When has it helped you to ask in no uncertain terms for what you needed?

What could be more romantic than the view from a hot air balloon, floating as the breeze will take you through the dawn sky? Of course, the beauty and romance of a hot air balloon is exactly its inconvenience—you have no rudder, no wings, no control over what direction you will go.

What is the best thing that has happened to you because you ended up somewhere you didn’t intend to go?

Look, writes Mary Oliver in her poem “In Blackwater Woods,” the trees/are turning/their own bodies/into pillars//of light,/ are giving off the rich/ fragrance of cinnamon/and fulfillment…. Even as the trees prepare to let go into winter and stillness they burn with an incandescent light. Sometimes our moments of greatest abundance come as we recognize the inevitability of loss.

When have you made beauty out of facing loss?