"What is the opposite of abundance? It's not scarcity. It's greed. Greed is the belief that there is not enough for everyone, so you'd better grab yours now. What is the opposite of love? It's not hate. It's fear. Fear is the belief that someone or something can hurt you." -Robert Allen
If you have been living in the Southeast United States this fall, then you know how dry it has been. In September, October, and November we saw record level heat and a stunning lack of precipitation, culminating in the outbreak of many large wildfires. While the external world is shriveling and burning, it isn't difficult to make a connection to personal, social, and economic hardship.
We hang on the precipice of recession in the midst of an election year. A gender and culture war is raging. The world seems to be tipping over on its head. Are these concerns merely specters or are they real threats? Perhaps they are, in actuality, both. The power that hardship holds over us lies partly in our own attitude toward it.
Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed. Wherever there is scarcity, there is also abundance. Recession occurs when spending goes down. As a result interest rates increase, and wealth is consolidated in the hands of a few. But a reversal is always inevitable. The wealthy cannabalize one another. Windfall occurs, and part of the riches are redistributed. Spending increases and a boom results.
Preparing for abundance while in the grips of scarcity is a counterintuitive imperative for surviving long marches through metaphorical deserts. Like Moses and the Jews, who roamed for forty years, having faith in a brighter future is the essential element to eventual success. When there is drought we must look for more creative ways to get water. Reservoirs, aqueducts, and wells become the tools for not only surviving now, but also harnessing the future abundance.
The most important thing that you can invest in at this very moment is your health: physical, spiritual, and mental. There are many luxuries we can live without, but our health is not one of them. Scarcity has a way of pointing out what is truly important. Eating well, exercising daily, sleeping fully, praying, spending time with loved ones, and reading good books are all worth the investment. These are the aqueducts that we can always be improving upon. We will need them once the rains finally come.
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