Today I am revisiting a previously published column.

Inventing Your Life

“Abundance”


By


Rob Claudio

As we have begun a new year filled with hope and anticipation, its daily reminders weave in some threads of apprehension. If you read the newspapers or go on-line to see the headlines of the world, you will find plenty of stories that can make you feel like your issues or problems are small and unworthy in comparison. How do we begin to pick up the pieces when so much has transpired over the last year? We do it one day at a

time. If you were to go back over the last year over the periods of time that you found were to be the most challenging, most people would think to themselves that they cannot believe they got through as much as they did. Just ask someone who has lived through a life threatening illness or perhaps experienced it within their family. Time for those individuals appeared to have stood still as the days slowly turned the pages of their lives.  In reading Eckhart Tolle’s best selling book, “A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose,” there are many chapters devoted to the peeling of layers we need to do as human beings in order to live in the moment and not dwell so much in the past. One of the great lessons for me in the book was in relation

to the topic of abundance.  In it, he describes that for those that

seek it, they must be willing to see the largest amount of abundance in the smallest of things. Most would think that abundance comes in the form of financial well being; however, when you ask someone who has been ill for some time, they can tell you that an abundance of good health would be on the top of their list. In order for me to demonstrate how this topic showed its relevance in my life, I have to tell you a quick story about an iris. Almost ten years ago, I received as a gift a large iris bulb to plant outside my house. I had seen these flowers before and I had always thought they were pretty majestic and very colorful. I was excited and planted my iris with much enthusiasm, with hopes that it would bloom in the spring later that year. Spring came and turned into summer, which then brought me back to the fall when I started this process. Still no flower emerged.  I lost track after the second year and then I had to move to Orange County for a new job. I was intent on leaving the iris in the flower bed in front of my house as the moving truck was busy loading my furniture. However, I thought about it long enough and decided it should make the trip with me and proceeded to dig it up. In my new home I planted it again and several long leaves emerged giving me hope that it’s time had come… but still no bloom. I figured, it would at some point decide when it was time and this would be my own personal test in patience with nature. After five years at that location I moved once again and I took my iris with me, since I figured it was now a lifetime commitment. Since my last move, it has been almost two years and the many plants on my patio surround the planted iris. Well, earlier this week when watering all of them I almost fell back when I noticed a long stock growing and three small bulbs attached to it… after all of these years, it was finally time. The colors are vibrant purple and blue as it now towers over the rest of the plants. I have taken a moment each day since then, to admire the abundance in this flower that has been with me now for so long. I am not sure how long it will continue to bloom and if it will multiply like most do, in the future seasons to come. What I do know is that I had to learn to appreciate it over the years, even when it did not bloom and never losing hope that it would some day. I hope that the New Year 2009 brings you renewed hope in all that transpires around you and my best wishes that you have all of the abundance that you seek on a daily basis!

 

“Do not anticipate trouble, or

worry about what may never

happen. Keep in the sunlight.”

– Benjamin Franklin