Abundance Sensei x 2

My husband Joe is my Abundance Sensei. With him, all things are plentiful and available to share. The first winter we spent together, I watched Joe build a fire in the fireplace. He set a decent-sized stack of logs on the andirons and then left to get something from the porch. I thought he’d return with newspapers or a match. Instead, he strode in with another armful of wood, which he added to the pile in the fireplace. When he finally ignited the mountain of logs, the whole room lit up with flickering, orange light. It was the biggest and warmest fire I’d ever experienced indoors.

During the leanness of this past year, I’ve thought back to that fire many times. It’s reminded me that there will always be enough.

Our daughter inherited the abundance gene from her father. She makes mud pies thick with clay, sand, gravel, and grass. Her paintings at school are so intensely layered, they’re crusty. Our freezer is full of ’stews’ she’s concocted from flour, herbs, dried red lentils, macaroni, water… She knows she’s welcome to a handful of anything from our pantry that strikes her fancy. How can I resist her love of materials and complete lack of inhibition as she works? I study her calm and decisive process. She is at one with creation.

Last Sunday, a friend invited us over to decorate holiday cookies. My daughter’s designs are on the top; mine are on the bottom. I’m still learning.