Abundance of Peace

It does not take a large bank account, a beautiful house or fancy car to have an abundance of peace. Peace is something that is found within us by the way we choose to view the world. Peace is found in knowing there is enough in the bank account for your needs or being able to happily adjust those needs to match its balance. An abundance of peace is found in a home filled with warmth and family you love and loves you, not in its furnishings or location. Peace is found in knowing you have a way to get where you want to go, even if it doesn’t have leather seats. It’s about where you choose to go in your mind. There is not an abundance of peace in trying to be something for someone else or in keeping up with the Jones’. Peace comes from keeping up with your own dreams and recognizing when you have achieved them. “Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” -- Buddha

Abundance of Memories

Too often in life we make plans that “someday” we will go on that ski trip or climb that mountain or take the kids on a special vacation. Someday sometimes doesn’t come. Before we lose the opportunity we need to change our thinking to “today, I will…” and then do it before it is too late. My dad had a good friend who worked hard his whole life saving for retirement. He had so many plans of what he was going to do once he retired with all the money he saved and time he would have. He died of a heart attack 3 days before his retirement. It is a story that is all too common. Live for today and make memories out of every day life. Plan for the future but don’t plan as if it is a guaranteed possibility. Live for today and create your abundance of memories.

The Abundance Inside Us

Dr. Wayne Dyer said, “Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into.” When people think of abundance it is easy to think about what you have. We are all born into this world the same. We have nothing but our bodies, and it is our parents who have all of the belongings they used for our benefit to clothe and feed us and keep us safe. As we grow more independent, and we provide for ourselves, it is easy to get caught up in trying to acquire more “things” – things like cars and houses and all that goes in them. We acquire more or nicer clothes to make us feel good about the way we look. I once heard that we spend the first half of our lives acquiring stuff and the second half trying to get rid of it! True abundance however can only come from within. If we do not feel satisfied with what we have within in us, then we will never be satisfied with the material things we surround ourselves with. I think with a certain amount of personal growth and understanding and maybe even maturity we come to understand that we have within us all that we need and we just need to learn to recognize it.

Opportunities in Abundance

Opportunities are all around us in great abundance. Why is it then that some people can see the opportunities for what they are while others fail to recognize them? Is it that some people get more changes or do they simply know and understand an opportunity when the see it? How then can we learn to recognize and the abundant opportunities we are all equally entitled to? We can start by first being open minded. If we shut the door on the opportunity before we explore it a little more, we will miss its potential. What might appear at first to be uninspiring may turn into the opportunity of a lifetime. Second, we can look for opportunity in every situation. If the door is closed on what we thought was the right direction for us, then try looking for the open window. It was once said that opportunities don’t come along stamped with their value on them. We never know what they may bring until we act on them. If we cannot understand the opportunities when they come along, then we miss out on the true potential they hold.

Live and Experience the Abundance

John Petit-Senn said, "Not what we have but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance." How very true. Over the years we have done many things as a family that didn’t cost us anything financially but created some of our best memories. We would go to the park or beach or rake up a big pile of leaves and jump in them. As the kids got older, we had fun fishing at a local pond or hiking in the state park. Some of the most abundant memories are just shooting hoops and the boys learning from their dad some tips he learned while playing basketball in high school, college and the Air Force. Even the vacations that we took together mostly involved experiencing something new with extended family.

There were of course the splurges on those trips, but it always makes me smile when I think of what my family wants to do the next time we return. It wasn’t the themed amusement parks or tourist attractions of the country’s major cities that were on the “must do again” list. It was the small, simple, and even least expensive places we went that seemed to hold the majority of the good memories – the backyard campfires, swimming at the lake, or looking for alligators on the U of F campus. All it took was being surrounded by family and friends to enjoy the abundance of life.