My Concept of Abundance

            When I was a little girl, I always knew that I would be rich.  I would design houses, each one with a multitude of rooms, but there was one feature in the house that always remained the same, and that was the entry way.  When you first walked into one of my houses you would see a huge arching staircase and in front of that staircase was a waterfall.  I don’t know why I wanted a waterfall in my houses, but I did, and it was always there. 

            For each room in the house, I would flip through Sears or JcPenny catalogs and create the look for the room.  I usually had one wild room with paw print sheets and cheetah pictures above the bed.  I usually put something unique in each room, depending on the theme.  For instance, a Sherlock Holmes room, yes I’ve loved Holmes since I was a child, would have a hidden doorway or secret passage way that the occupant must discover.  The rooms were always large and beautiful and I imagined the joy that people would have coming and staying in my houses, and the fun we would have.  I even loved picking out the pots and pans.  It was such a full and beautiful experience creating those homes.

            My idea of money when I was a child was this: If I take a dollar out of the bank and spend it, another dollar will appear in its place.   The concept of running out of money made no sense to me.  Neither did paying for a coin bank.  My parents were big on save money, but I didn’t understand why I had to buy that pink pig just to put money in it.  I also didn’t understand why the pig didn’t come already filled with money.  I thought that if the stores would just give those pigs away, then people would want to put their pennies in them.

            Speaking of pennies, as a child I was a great money finder.  I could find money anywhere.  If I went to the store with my mother I always came back with money in my pocket.  I remember my mother saying dozens of times, “you always find money.”  It’s because I expected it to be there, I expected to find money.  Not always coins either.  I was great at finding bills and even the occasional check.  When I was twenty, I found a check for over 1800 dollars lying on the ground.  I turned it into the bank, hoping the owner would come back and get it. 

            When my parents tried to explain to me about money, I didn’t understand.  They said that money was hard to come by and that you had to work hard to get it.  I didn’t understand then, but at some point later in life I bought into that concept.  I forgot how to find pennies and started finding bills.  I put my pretty house with its waterfall, staircase, and clever rooms away.  I still thought I was going to be rich; I just needed to be more practical about it.  Well after working two jobs 60-70 hours a week for nearly three years, filing bankruptcy, and being so broke I was eating the day old bakery rolls from the gas station I worked at because I couldn’t afford food, I realized that something in my idea about money had gotten misconstrued.  I was obviously way off base from my center, I just couldn’t remember where or what that center was.  I didn’t remember the houses or the rooms I created when I was a little girl. 

            Now I do.  I remember my belief that if I take a dollar and spend it another will appear, and you know what, it does.  Checks appear in my mailbox, and I am creating my houses again, complete with waterfall.  Money is not hard to acquire.  It is a tool.  Share it with others and watch it multiply.  Give to yourself.  Just don’t let money become a controlling factor in your life.  Build your house, build your dreams into reality by understanding that we live in an abundant, limitless universe.  We are all rich, in every way.