Abundance, our tendencies & our path

Abundance, What is it? At its root abundance is space. The experience of abundance is an expansive opening that's quite unlike anything else. Abundance is "otherworldly" in its texture; however, utterly plain through and through. Abundance is what holds, possesses, retains, nurtures, cares and yet does not lose the root of spaciousness. If you're interested at all about knowing abundance intimately you'll pay careful attention to the end of the last sentence... "yet does not loose its spaciousness." Abundance isn't having something without this spaciousness. Holding without spaciousness isn't abundance. That's scarcity. That's what is called "I'm going to grasp onto this stuff like a hoarding kid ready to fight for the cookie jar. This is mine! mine! mine!" It doesn't matter if you only own a bag, one book and no change of clothes or 3 houses, 8 "luxury cars" and 55 of the most expensive shoes on planet earth, if you hold and grasp you're living in scarcity. From an interior standpoint, there's very little different. Now let's look at the other side of the coin. Let's take a quick glance at spaciousness without holding, possessing and retaining. That's not abundance either. That's the "I'm checked out like a kid at a middle school dance with my hands on someone else not quite sure what to do as I shuffle my feet around" ... abundance isn't in the slightest bit afraid to hold what is here. So Abundance is spaciousness that embraces, possesses and holds. The desire to possess is so strong that very very few people ever really come to know what true abundance is. Why? You guessed it, no space. What you probably didn't guess is that there also isn't any ability to possess anything. Go back and read the first part of the last little mini paragraph - ok, so you don't really have to, I'll rewrite it again - I said, "the desire to possess is so strong..." Did you catch it that time - it's a desire to possess. This "desire to" in no way in hell or in heaven (or on earth for that matter) is the actual ability to possess something. So most people end up desiring to possess - and I mean really intensely desiring to possess that new car, house, pair of really cool shoes, relationship, spiritual attitude, computer, book, insight, discipline, happiness... you get the point. So in the extreme desire to possess, people tend to follow one of two trends. Behind door number one we find Bob Barker revealing the person who "has it all" or the person who's on the path to "having it all." There's very little difference between these two at their root. (My deepest apologies to those who've "made it" in order to set themselves apart from those who haven't). Behind door number two we find Bob Barker revealing the person who has "next to nothing." This is either by necessity or by choice. In necessity we find people for many reasons who aren't able to deeply engage into their lives. When I say they "aren't able" I mean they lack the ability in any particular moment. Those who've chosen not to "have" anything fall into the camp that is largely driven by fear. This is your pathological ascender - the ones who've mastered dissociation and just kept on going. Somehow they feel as though they are better than just about everyone else, yet ultimately afraid to step into their manifest strength and responsibility. Now I'm obviously painting with some broad strokes here, life isn't black and white. There's gradations of an immense complexity relating these trends; however, for the sake of conversation hold these lightly as orienting generalizations. So then, let's come back to this notion of abundance. Without spaciousness, openness, and the expansive freedom from which and within all of manifestation arises, true appreciation cannot flourish. Appreciation thrives upon space. Appreciation dives deeply into the present moment, your heart expands and opens more fully to what is in front of you, what you behold. You appreciate what is, you cherish and celebrate what is. This is abundance. Abundance is in no way, shape, or form (at least not one that holds much authentic wisdom) the contracted desire for more. Abundance isn't the fantasy of having this or that later on down the road. Abundance only exists right now in this moment. The beautiful thing about abundance is it requires nothing special, just space, an open hand and an open heart. The challenge then is taking the steps we need to cultivate our awareness of space and our ability to open our hands and hearts so that we're actually able to just hold - nothing more nothing less. Peace, Rob