Abundance - Class October 3, 2004
Abundance simply put is personal fulfillment. Personal fulfillment is delivered to us wrapped in shiny foil wrapping paper that blatantly reflects our choices. The decisions we make on a daily basis equally effect our ability to achieve a state of fulfillment as well as the long term goals we catalog and carry with us to invoke our purpose. But in order to make the decisions that lead us to abundance, to arrive at that blissful state of being, we must first start at the beginning, which is self-discovery. Until we honestly know what would make us happy we cannot know what fulfillment is. If our self-discovery is based too heavily upon comparison to others we will seldom feel fulfilled in anything that we do. If we do, it is fleeting, for the next comparison arrives too quickly. Albeit, if we never gage our life's progress with anyone else we will feel egotistically superior or crippling inferior, either unwarranted. Most people fall into the first trap. When we release the overt comparison, engage in acts of self-appraisal (ourselves and supporter/mentor), self-discovery (intuitive and study), and formulate positive intentions, we will work hard toward our desires and before long we find that our goals manifest in a celebratory manner. This ideal manifestation cannot take place until and unless we tie a ribbon of love around the foil wrapping. Love, which initiates from the divine, fastens all that we work towards with integrity, acceptance, forgiveness of self and others and, importantly, a lasting underlying desire to share. Abundance brings forth the ideal of love and teams it with material success. One of our most precious spiritual life lessons is the self-actualization of our talents to better our lives, and by doing so from love, the world around us (whether we set out to change the world or not will be better when we proceed from love). Success without love results in greediness, emptiness, loneliness - love alone without any success brings longing, resentment and soon love dwindles. When the gift of fulfillment is delivered we need to become like our grandmothers at birthday parties, excitedly open the present but be sure to keep the ribbon and wrapping paper neatly stored nearby so as to remind ourselves that abundance is surely a gift we deliver to ourselves.