Dawn breaks.
Coffee brews. I dole it out to those who need it here.
A hurried, yet lovely moment of family devotions before they scurry out the door.
Car drives away.
Garage door shuts.
My day begins.
Husband gone to work.
Daughter in school.
Dog fed.
Laundry done.
Tea is hot.
Lavender oil diffusing.
House is settled.
Soft piano music cued up on You Tube.
Cozy blanket, warm socks, a lovely winter view out my study window.
Christmas still in the air.
A candle burning.
Pen in hand.
I’m making my lists, just like you are.
Fresh starts get us all excited, do they not?
Oh, what we’ll do with this great new year in front of us.
Anything is possible… at least we think that now.
We’re cracking open new journals, turning the gold embossed pages, smiling with pregnant hope of what we’ll write, what will happen in these days, what’s happened before, and how we’ll make it different.
We’re placing ribbon bookmarks in sparkly leather bound calendars, denoting our appointments and important conversations to come, certain that possibility and surprise are ahead, and old and painful things will stay at bay for awhile.
We’re writing what we’ll weigh, whom we’ll work with, where we’ll travel, how we’ll get there.
We have big ideas, great intentions, unfinished business, extraordinary talent…
We’re uncovering it finally.
We’re doing it.
The “shoulds” have become “musts” and “unstoppable” is our new mantra.
We’ve purchased new books we’re going to read, enrolled in classes that will shake us into uncomfortable action we’ve too long been refusing, paid for our yoga classes, and called our best friends to hold us accountable.
This is great.
What in the wide world could hinder the day.
And then we get a message.
Oh, and on that list I’m making, one of them is “to leave my phone in the other room until 9am”.
Screwed that up already.
”It’s not for me. I’m canceling. Thanks for investing your time, but I’m uncomfortable and the products don’t work.”
Cool.
Cool.
I’m cool.
And so, I lunge deeply inward this time. I’ve learned to distinguish between responses and reactions.
Breathing.
Not owning what isn’t mine.
Honoring what is.
More breathing.
Remembering all those lovely things I promised myself for this years new stance,
And so I message back.
I notice I’m strong. I’m confident. I’m happy. I’m going somewhere brave and this is part of it.
This lovely person is moving forward without me, without us, without our awesome community, without our products. It’s what she needs. It’s what she penned in her pretty new journal for 2021.
Good for her. Proud of her clear action. A little jealous actually.
Oh, for the clarity at her age.
And I take stock.
I feel it for a bit.
I wonder if it’s worth a reframe on my part, to help her see that what she’s doing is a potential mistake.
It’ll stop her from the goals she said she had.
I state a couple solid beliefs in what I’m doing, and what we can do for her, and then release.
I notice how this will affect my day, my mood, my work, my paycheck, but I’m not taken out.
Not at all.
I field her concerns, make the needed adjustments to her account, close a chapter with her that was shorter than I had hoped, and I set my phone down.
And walk away.
Issue solved.
I survived it.
Feeling amazing.
I served. Did my part. Communicated well. Remained open.
Presented a couple options.
All is well.
And I realize in that tiny moment that this is what abundance is.
It’s choosing to see the openings, the places for growth and connection.
It’s disassociating my self worth and the products with one person’s choice.
It’s refusing to summarize a slight bump as a personal failure, and notice it rather, as a place to be curious.
It’s a chance to wonder again, to look closer, to reimagine, to go again, and again.
With her in a new way, and yea, with others in a new way.
She is not a problem. Neither am I, nor my product, nor my company, nor my coaching, or my posture of pressing in. People need breaks and they do what they do.
Just like me. Just like you.
And life flows like this. In and out. Up and down. Back and forth.
And we get to be a part of it.
We get to choose how we see what’s in front of us.
We mustn’t wear a protective sheath that clouds us from life lessons and the people who bring them.
We make all the space in the world for people to be who they are, stretch them a little, let them go where they may, and proceed with our brand of contribution that is still valid, worthy, and needed by countless seekers.
And we remember, He has come that we might have “abundant life”.
It’s fully available to us all for FREE.
It’s what He promised… “pressed down, shaken together, spilling over, people giving into your bosom”
Like God is tripping over Himself to bless us beyond what we could ever dream.
We tend to think of abundance when the surprise bonus check arrives, or the phone call telling us we got the part, or a doctor’s report stating the test was negative, and yes it’s this… and it’s also life’s micro-moments when a handsome stranger lends us a smile,
a person lets us through a long line, and… a prospect tells us “no”.
There are other people to bless, waiting to hear from us, wondering where we’ve been all their lives.
If it’s true that life is happening for us, not to us, and that God is crazy in love with who we are and whom we’re becoming, always distributing goodness, kind instruction, earth shaking, mountaintop joy, and money to cover more than just our basic needs, then our position is to open our eyes.
Abundance is literally falling from the sky in droves, pouring from people, sneaking around corners, crafted in conflicts, seeped in snowstorms, oozing from past mistakes.
And so, I’m claiming more of it.
More for me and you and what we’re dreaming for 2021
There is no end in sight to what is unfolding in our midst.
I wake long before and recline long after the sun runs its course, just dreaming about it all.
This is how to live my friends.
Expectant that exactly what I need (and then some) is here and more is on the way.
My word for 2021 is “abundance”.
What’s yours?
Arms are open wide, bring it.
