Abundance

Daughter to be baptized  and I went shopping today for the celebration lunch that we will have after her baptism.  We were amazed at the lavish abundance all around us. The stores were packed.  Cosco was generous with the free samples, extravagantly offering us whole Lindor chocolates and a delicious caramel shortbread!  The lights were glittering and shelves laden with gifts to be.  We didn't even go down those aisles.  We did find a lovely cake.  My daughter was taken with it right away.  It is decorated with rich reds, greens and browns shaped in a lovely wreath and a bright shining candle.  The inscription is Happy Holidays.  I felt that wording did not quite capture the specialness of the occasion, but after standing with the heavy cake leaning over the counter and trying to get someone's attention, I realized that Cosco does not major in bakery service, so we took it as is.  At another store I bought one of those squeezy tubes so that I can carefully skim off the Holidays to transform it to  Baptism and her most special angelic name which does indeed mean pure and white!

As we walked through the stores I did wonder about abundance.  I do want to live a life of abundance, but somehow at this season of lavish overload I have been thinking that maybe the kind of plentiful bounty that I am after is different than that all around me today.  For me this external abundance does rather cloud my own inner connection to fullness that resonates with integrity in my heart.  For years I have been so enamored by all the external trappings and justifications of my journey.  Although I do love the lights and music and joy of the season, I am seeking more abundance within these days.  In my heart I am sitting with the animals in the quiet and lonely barn, quite content with the prickly hay in my hair and the rich smells around me.  I am listening to the gentle sounds of cows munching their hay and the quiet rustling warmth out of the brightness of the day.  The star is shining down and I am waiting.