September Prayer Painting! {ABUNDANCE}
Where I live, September is a season of Abundant growth as summer reached its peak
and prepared for descent.
All of the green overgrowth, entwining with one another from a season well spent,
can sometimes feel a little overwhelming to my spirit,
tickling my craving for the cool, shedding change and retreat of autumn.
I love that place of swelling abundance,
sitting on the edge of tranformative mystery,
leaning into inevitable contrast and fresh perspective.
The following are some thoughts that surfaced in the sessions with this painting,
and like the seasons, they are sure to shift and shed, change and evolve.
They are just my mere impressions, true and untrue...
~
Abundance is said to be just a very large amount of something. Anything. Nothing.
The blooms, the thorns. The good, the bad. The tears, the laughter. Death and Life, even.
All the transformations inbetween.
We live in a Universe that is fundamentally abundant, and always changing.
Abundance cannot be denied.
But it can be missed. Overlooked.
Yearned for. Taken for granted.
I sense that what we often seek is not the abundance itself (for it is always there).
What we seek is that *feeling* of abundance
in regards to the things we want, the things we value.
We seek the awareness of abundance.
What I have found, as I've moved deeper into my own creative spiritual practice, is so simple,
and, quite frankly, sometimes knock-my-socks-off miraculous.
Where I place my attention, abundance grows.
By that, I mean, my connection to the sensation, the *feeling* of its existence, GROWS in frequency and duration and experience.
Worry breeds doubt and suffering.
Focusing on lack, doom, weakness or negativity only brings to me feelings of scarcity, restraint, tightness, limitation, desperation.
When my body feels closed off, I know I am out of alignment with my faith.
Trust and gratitude fuel my faith.
Appreciating Life all around me, within my own cells, allows the feeling of openness, resilience, strength, positive abundance to flow within me.
When my body feels charged with love, with joy, with stillness, there is alignment with my truth ~
this is my compass.
Abundance can be like a number or animal or symbol I've recently been drawn to.
Once I choose it as meaningful,
it begins to show itself and its connection to all of (my) life, plentiful and proud,
even in the places I'd overlooked it before,
where it may have sat like a chameleon, always ever present,
accessible by my chosen perspective point,
by my level of self-awareness.
It goes even deeper than this, perhaps...
and might be expressed like a map or directions, at least in my case.
When I am out of touch, this is where I start, this is my current map:
Check in > stop the expectations, the sense of entitlement,
stop dictating a story to myself of exactly what abundance should look like,
or just how, when and where it should show up in my life.
Ground > Breathe > Participate *with awareness*, in the dynamic amazing exchange between my body and the body of the abundant universe.
Trust > that the abundance I seek is everywhere, in everything, and of Source - and most deeply felt from a point of perspective within.
Connect > to my sense of love and devotion to Source through my practice(s).
Allow > the *feeling* of ever-present abundance to surface from within through surrender to my practice.
See > Listen > Notice the vast abundance everywhere, within and around me, even in the moments of contrast that challenge me to grow and expand my vision further and allow me to deepen my appreciation by experiencing the other side of abundance.
Honor > with reverence, this cycle, this season, this contrast, this moment, this thriving abundant Life through expression, sharing, service, and deeper participation in its dynamic awesomeness.
Then, carry on, pay attention to how I feel, and repeat as necessary.
I am so grateful for the chance to share, and for your presence.
May you know all the abundance you seek.
2 october 2012
~hali
