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 The landscape of summer,
as described by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
lay as if newly created in all the freshness
of childhood. Like a joyful child filled
with boundless energy, summer gifts us with
unlimited abundance, a bounty that renews itself
again and again each year. We come to expect
it, for we trust the laws of nature. And yet,
we're not quite certain that these timeless,
natural laws apply to us. If we did, we wouldn't
sensationalize bestsellers like The Secret
or The Millionaire Mind. But we do,
not because we don't know the secret, but because
we fail to trust ourselves.
Over the last few days I've
immersed myself in the theories of abundance and the Laws
of Attraction, reading metaphysical masters to insure I get
the facts straight. After all, who am I to educate you on the
subject - a middle-class, self-employed woman who
drives an old Honda Civic and shops at Marshalls and TJ Maxx?
I'm smiling at the
moment, laughing at the irony of my words. A
year ago I would never have thought to write
an article on this subject. But something has
shifted profoundly in me, and today I'm clearer
than ever on the meaning of abundance. The metaphysical
masters have validated my thoughts, including
Rick Jarow, author of Creating the Work
You Love. He writes, Abundance is not
a question of how much one has but of what one's
attitude is toward what one has…Abundance is,
above all, the belief-and even more important,
the feeling-that one is loved. When we feel
loved by life itself, we begin to feel that
there will always be a place for us in the world.
As of late, I've been
feeling my place in the world, clear of purpose and
totally aligned with my truth. Work is flowing freely.
People are acknowledging me generously. It's been a blissful
experience, a feeling that continues to expand the more I allow it,
like a warm summer evening that lives on into the night. More and more
I remember how to be ever-present to a childlike reality essential to
manifestation - a reality free of worry and self-sabotaging fear.
You remember this place. I know you do. Remember the moment when you
rode your bike without falling for the very first time? Or the time
you were scared silly but still jumped off the high dive? Those moments
felt miraculous, didn't they? Profound moments of success that manifested
abundant joy. Our place in the world was defined in those moments.
We felt completely self-assured and loved by life itself. Joy was limitless.
Trusting our joyful selves,
just like we did as children, is, in my mind, the secret
to creating an abundant life. We've got to want it, whatever
"it" is, with a childlike heart, and then, release the limiting beliefs
that stop its flow. Feeling abundant, we create more abundance. We climb
upward again, exhilarated by leaping off the high dive. We get back on our
bicycle, despite our bruised knee.
It's just too much fun not to do it, for joyful abundance is a miraculous thing.
So here's my suggestion, despite the fact
that I'm still learning. Don't bother with my book review. Stop reading
the masters and go outside and play. Relive your childlike passions. Jump
fully into the moment. Promise yourself you'll make time for summertime joy everyday.
Abundance grows out of a joyful place, not one where we're worried or striving to achieve success.
Trust your heart, as you did as a child, for that's where abundance lives.
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean –
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down –
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t exactly know what a prayer is.
I don’t know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
 Twenty years ago a man by the
name of John Randolph Price wrote a book titled,
The Abundance Book, a diminutive
volume on the principles of creating affluence.
Unlike The Secret, this book never
made it to the bestseller list, but it did find
its way into my heart several years ago. I had
gotten into a fearful place, confused and uncertain
about my financial future. That insecure part
of me wanted to run like hell back to corporate,
but a wiser part knew that I was living my truth
-- coaching people to create meaning and fulfillment
in life. I couldn’t run; my work was too joyful.
But I was terribly afraid of the unknown and
in need of abundant help.
Not surprisingly, help showed up in perfect time.
A friend brought me a copy when she came for a visit. It was the
best hostess gift I ever received. Within its eighty-three pages
I found ten Statements of Principle that taught me how to draw on the true Source of abundance -
the creative energy that forever flows through all of life.
Easy-to-read, it opens with a bit of
ancient history, making the case for the concept of “all-sufficiency,”
a belief that originated in the Mystery Schools of Asia, Egypt, Persia and
Greece. The most essential aspect of it, however,
is a well-delineated 40-day Prosperity Plan built around the practice of
brief daily meditations and journaling – a must to connect to the Source,
for according to Randolph Price, it takes 40 days for consciousness to realize a truth. And for some folks, it takes more.
That’s why I continue to use this program to this day.
Raising our consciousness is what
it's all about, for consciousness of the presence is
your supply. Simple to understand? Certainly. Difficult to
master? You bet. No get rich quick scheme,
but rather, a lifelong commitment to Truth - to your truth.
Read an excerpt.
A WOMAN'S POWER LUNCH: Wed's, Jul 18, 25 and Aug 1 from noon - 1:00 p.m.
EDT.
Using a six-stage model of power and a Personal Power Profile, you identify
the stage that best defines your power edge, and through coaching and group support,
develop concrete strategies to expand and leverage your "whole" power -- external power,
or capacity for action, and your internal power, or capacity for reflection.
Series includes (3) 1-hour "connected-learning" teleforums; handmade journal
and reflection note cards; weekly summary emails with recommended readings; and an
individual coaching session valued at $100. ACT NOW! Open enrollment is limited to 5
participants at a discounted summer rate of $99, a savings of $50.
Email pcarrera@humanarts.biz
or call 404-352-0340 for additional information
or to register for this event.
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Read an excerpt
But the eternal summer will not fade.
William Shakespeare
…summer is a steady state of plenty, a green and amber muchness that feeds us on more levels than we know.
Parker J. Palmer
Love is the only abundance.
Marianne Williamson
Man was born to be rich, or grows rich by the use of his faculties, by the union of thought with nature.
Emerson
But if you will not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty, and it is you who are that poverty.
Jesus
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
Albert Camus
Love is to the heart what the summer is to the farmer's year - it brings to harvest all the loveliest flowers of the soul.
Author Unknown
It is not what we have, but what we enjoy, that constitutes abundance.
Epicurus
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