ABUNDANCE AND SCARCITY IN THE TIME OF CORONA
The other day I went to pick up a CSA box from a local farm. (CSA is community supported agriculture) The radio was on with Kenny Chesney’s station “No Shoes Radio” which makes me nostalgic for summer. Kenny came on and was talking about being home. He said he has grilled outside 3 days in a row, “something he hasn’t done since he was in college.”
Then I started to cry. As I listened to him talk about how we are all being asked to slow down right now, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude and the soothing nature of slowing down.
As I was on my way to pick up my “slow food” I started crying even more with the realization that life was never meant to go this fast. And because I have been moving so rapidly I began to grieve all the things I might have missed in my haste.
The box of vegetables and fruit was a metaphor for slowing down to me. And while scarcity is all around me right now, there is abundance right next to me, if I can only slow down enough to see it.
SLOWING DOWN.
It’s seems we’ve forgotten not only what that is but also why that is important in the first place. When we slow down there has to be a trust. A trust that even when we slow down all of our tools are still there, the potential of ourselves and the planet still exist. In fact, we may even see that we have more tools than we previously imagined, because we’ve actually stopped to look around. Because we have forgotten to trust, we have started to live from a place of scarcity and mistrust (hence the toilet paper situation.)
In coaching, we talk a lot of about the scarcity mindset. It’s a way thinking that’s says, “there is not enough” or “someone else is already doing it”, “there won’t be enough for me if I share”. When you say these things you reaffirm there is a limited amount of creation. And that’s what becomes your reality. (I’m sorry if this is radical but don’t shoot the messenger)It can manifest as overbuying (toilet paper) or taking more than need, or depression and apathy. Actually it can manifest in an infinite amount of ways.
So whenever faced with a challenge, a great practice is to ask the opposite question. In this instance, when there is not enough, instead of panicking and asking how can I get more, we could instead, look within and say how am I taking more than I need? And how am I trying to steal and hoard time, by moving as quickly as possible?
For those of us that cannot trust that money will arrive, or cannot trust our president to make the right choices for all of us and cannot TRUST that everything will be ok. Please, trust in the resiliency and the abundance of YOU.
This slow down is intensely horrifying for so many and this slow down is intensely awakening for many. Both are valid and can exist together. (More on this in another post.)
With that said I am so grateful for this time. For the cool breeze seeping into my pores, that I previously wouldn’t have noticed or even been annoyed by, for the nourishment from local farms, for the tears on my cheeks which connects me to the suffering and grief and joy of so many right now.