Abundance
I am working on a couple new mannequins.
The one most fully formed in my mind,
Is Abundance.
She pours out...growth.
Development.
Shaped by the things that feed her.
Soil,
Plants and trees, sunlight and grass.
Water.
So with her base coat down,
I pulled her apart to begin painting the progression.
Taped up her back...
That is where the tree will be.
Her front, a parade of plant life and mountain curves.
The center- where blood and water mix...
I can already see how she will be...
Working out in my mind, which pieces go first.
How do I layer this ...rightly.
Abundance is like that...
You don’t become abundant while waiting for the abundance to come...
You can only become abundant,
When your cup runs over.
So often...
I’m not even considering the cup.
Half full-
Half empty...
Most likely forgotten altogether.
What cup?
I know it’s easier to focus on the lack-
....What is missing.
....What is wrong.
.....What could be better.
And hopes are important any way-
So long as it’s driving us to work for it.
But abundance is about being overflowing with what you need.
Only...:.
We are the ones controlling what we need...
We truly are.
While talking with Lindy, it became clearer to me that there is a huge difference between
“Being” abundant
And “feeling” abundance.
If being abundant is having more than what is needed-
In order to feel that,
One has to actually notice that they have, or are getting; more than they need.
People with lowered expectations-
Don’t have the luxury of needing things they can’t get.
To someone starving-
Food is a need...
Not a good internet connection.
No one “needs” to get further than their legs can take them...
Not really.
We only need a car to get where we can’t walk to- faster.
Having a car is abundance to a person who relies on walking everywhere-
yet useless to someone who doesn't want to go anywhere.
It is abundance to have a well for water...
In a place where waiting in line for water is a basic need.
Where water doesn’t come for 3 days...
That private well ...is a luxury.
Freedom is abundance, where it isn’t taken for granted.
Over the years...
I’ve debated “basic human rights”...
One person’s right is another’s abundance...
Abundance is something tended to, grown and nurtured.
It can wither up and disappear easily.
Far too easily - its roots can dry up.
Abundance can crumble, falling in on itself...
In the blink of an eye.
...Creating Scarcity...
Which-
Scarcity is both a lack of having or obtaining needs...AND - a mindset and feeling of not having enough.
When you look at a situation of scarcity-
A place or thing that does not have enough.
Enough of what?
For a family all living stacked, one upon another-
Scarcity is not enough room to go around.
There would be the feeling of abundance to have your own room.
Working in an environment of a scarcity -
Would be the over-worked and under-staffed places.
There are many to choose from.
I remember working in a busy bar, slinging beers.
This one night,
It was only me serving to a full room of evolving drunks.
The tables over-crowded, music blaring and bodies literally trying to climb over the bar to pour their own drinks....
I couldn’t even keep their bills straight...
Overwhelmed, exhausted and run off my feet....
I understood scarcity that night.
Once, during COVID-
Myself and 1 nurse found out we were responsible for 96 complex-care patients.
Dozens of fall risks, call-bell hoppers and 2 locked dementia wards...
For the 2 of us.
That’s scarcity.
The scary kind,
Where you know there is no way that you can be spread out that thin—-
But there isn’t any other option available.
You make it work.
Scarcity is 4 hungry children, no money and an empty food cabinet.
Abundance is too many workers on a shift-
A full garden of food-
A bank full of back-up cash.
Abundance is plenty of resources to go around-
Scarcity is few, or none.
Yet-
Scarcity in the mind- is having all you need and still not having enough.
Abundance in the mind-
Is gratitude for anything above basic need.
My cup runneth over-
Since needs and abundance are so tightly interwoven-
Needs have to be seen as relative-
I might not need something that someone else does-
And vice versa.
“Needing” to follow the rules-
Is about having to be beholden to someone or something:
I don’t “need” to do my chores-
But doing my chores helps me fulfill the other fundamental needs.
Scarcity is insisting that a chore cannot be done with the tools at hand.
You cannot be abundant until you know where the bar is set for “norm”-
Minimal need vs. Met needs and more.
I only feel I have an abundance of coffee-
When the minimum of coffee is met and surpassed.
Scarcity states that I will never have enough coffee-
Facts!
Hook that IV up-yo
So in that way-
We are actually teaching each other and ourselves...what is a “have” and “have not”.
Someone who doesn’t like coffee-
Is NOT going to feel abundance in a sea of Java.
So often in our language and culture-
We assign “money” as the currency of expected abundance.
Scarcity is never having enough money.
You cannot have abundance without a wealth....!
Tho...
A wealth may be nothing to a scarcity mindset.
Currency of exchange is only an agreed upon method for trade.
The dollar trumps a Peso any day-
And Crypto creeps laugh at our antiquated bills and coins.
Money is- what traders agree on.
Exchange is always up for debate-
Yet abundance has been the jealous thorn of all civilizations throughout history.
Ask a tyrant-
It is NEVER enough.
This country wants what that country can produce-
For themselves.
Hoarding has a million faces- which is why I don’t understand the demonizing of it.
How is a dirty house, worse than those hoarded billions in off-shore trade?
A heap full of trash or a storage bin full of treasures- might be less harmful than a bloated wallet or over-fed dictator.
Beg, barter or steal-
Abundance equals power to control that currency.
A stamp collector knows what a stamp collector knows....
If every king and every politician-
Recognized their own abundance-
Felt it....
As a thing to be grateful for, and a thing to share in equal exchange——
Scarcity would cease to exist.
But that is simply idealistic fantasy-
Scarcity drives domination.
So in as much as Abundance is development and growth-
Scarcity is like a shadowy monster growing to epic proportions.
The perfect yin and yang-
Balance.
What abundance rejoices in-
Scarcity develops.
The more we can see the lacking-
The more we celebrate the gaining.
Someone with a scarcity of time-
Rejoices in the abundance of it.
As a recovering workaholic- I can vouch for this one - on a personal level.
It’s been a long time since I remembered how many hours there are in a day.
I think there must be some form of scarcity PTSD.
How:
having little or nothing-
Can turn into a massive tic or anxiety response...
I have had the pleasure of getting to know people who come from extreme poverty.
No single one is exactly alike-
However,
There are certain traits.
I’m positive studies have been done on this!
Having “nothing” causes hoarding, saving, seeking and over-giving, over-sharing. Anxiety, depression, fear-
Patience, long suffering and compassion—-
The whole extreme rainbow of reactions to hard times-
This has made it very difficult for me to buy into the idea that certain people have more “trauma” than others.
I tend to look at the world with the assumption that people are people wherever you go-
...abundance cannot be compared.
Comparing trauma is like comparing a kangaroo to a walrus.
The similarities end at the color.
I would be interested in finding out who, on this planet- has NOT experienced some form of trauma.
Comparing is a whole different topic-
Yet it relates to abundance and scarcity also.
When we compare “down”- we always have more than someone who has less.
When we compare “up”- we always have less than someone who has more.
I once took care of a lady who was jealous of the care staff-
She openly shared with me, that there was resentment for the fact that they could just walk to the toilet whenever they wanted.
She had to ask, and then be transferred from her wheelchair to the commode.
Super understandable!
It makes perfect sense to envy the ability to walk-
When you cannot.
So,
I asked her, what it would feel like,
To compare herself with someone who cannot use the commode at all-
And had no ability to ask for their soiled pad to be changed.
At the time, she was sharing her space with two other non-verbal patients.
God love her-
She thought about it!
I was so amazed by her response...
“That would be hard. I think, I might be jealous of me- because at least I can ask for the commode.”
She might have mobility scarcity-
But she was abundant in her ability to communicate....comparatively speaking.
So as I continue to work on these two mannequins-
I will sift through the ocean of thought about abundance and scarcity.
The fact that I am able to create at all-
Well,
That is a luxury afforded to me, through the abundance of time, space and ability.
Take good care.