The Opportunity For A New Kind Of Abundance
Sep 05, 2022Strange how climate change becomes personal in unexpected ways.
I recently saw an article that featured a picture of people on a beach starring up at the hills which were on fire. The headline heralded 'The end of the age of abundance and the beginning of the age of scarcity'. Here is a link to the original article.
Looking at it, most people will see just another picture of a fire. But I know that picture well because I lived it.
I was on that beach during those five days after being evacuated in the middle of the night. And I was praying that the fire would spare the homes of my mum, my dad, my aunt and uncle, my cousin. You see my whole family lives in those hills.
Luckily they were spared but we came close to losing everything. That day I understood something was definitely ending. But it also brought with it a deeper appreciation of what was precious in my life.
The End Or A New Beginning?
That is why, as to the question of whether it is the end of abundance, I see it differently.
I definitely see that it is the end of carefreeness - that humanity is called to graduate from adolescence to adulthood. But the good thing about adulthood is that it can actually be a moment full of possibility - that moment where you realise you can create your own destiny. And that is what we are facing now - that choice as to what kind of future we want.
Ultimately, I believe that it is the end of the age of consuming to fill a hole inside of us. But that was never real abundance anyway.
Beyond Survival
Yes we need our basic survival needs to be met. But after that things are not so clean cut. What I mean by that is that what comes next is the question of what it means to flourish and thrive as a human being. And what that actually means and takes.
In the current power and status paradigm, we believe that success is ticking specific external boxes.
To Real Abundance
For years, I coached people who were successful on the outside, but felt that something was missing on the inside. That taught me that having everything money can buy is not enough. Because abundance is actually about fulfilment, meaning, impacting what you most care about, self-expression, creativity, advancing life itself in your unique way. More than it is about acquiring things for the sake of it.
And yes we need resources for these things. But through that lens, our relationship to those same resources changes. It is not then about trying to compensate for an insatiable appetite. But to support the conscious expansion of our deeper self.
That is why I don't see this as the end of abundance. Just the opportunity for a new beginning. Where we get to the bottom of what abundance actually is and what a better form of it would be - one that is not just driven by external forces but is sourced from the inside.
And to come back to that fire. Five years on, the forest that burnt has regrown stronger and more abundant than it was before.
How do you see it?
Until Next Time,
Louise
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