It’s easy to think of abundance as wealth and the absence of wealth as poverty.
The lens through which we see the world becomes clouded when we think of either in such limiting ways.
I was listening to a podcast where a man who has coached some of the most famous people in many different life endeavors was interviewed.
He was asked about his background and stated that his dad was self-made, always working to improve himself and life for his family succeeding beyond what anyone thought possible. Then, he was asked about his mother.
“She didn’t do anything. “, he said. ”She was a wonderful mother, always supporting me and encouraging me to be my best, but she didn’t do anything”, he stated for a second time.
I wondered why his viewpoint was so clouded by the assumption that work was the only thing that defined value or success. Any mothers reading this right now are snorting with annoyance.
And yet, most of us experience clouded vision when it comes to seeing value beyond wealth or work.
I’m quite sure his mother might have a few things to say about his statements.
This man had created immense value that resulted in an abundance of wealth but in his complete blindness of seeing how much his mother did to help him be who he is, he was among the poorest.
Physical poverty is bad enough but those who live in it might surprise you at the abundance of joy they create for those around them. To our eyes, a situation might look relatively hopeless but our eyes lie.
It makes me think of the grandparents I met when working with grandparents who were raising their grandchildren in the poorest of neighborhoods in North Philadelphia.
They worked together to try to keep those children safe, to get them into better schools, to keep them off the dangerous streets and they were creative in their approaches.
We all are made up of abundance and wealth. We are rich in money and poor in spirit. We are financially well-off and can’t spare either time or money to help someone who needs our listening or a leg up in a tough time.
Where is your abundance and where is your poverty and more importantly, what are you willing to do about it?
Take some time today to sit down and imagine a door opening to the ways you think about this.
Our eyes only tell us what we wish to see. Maybe it’s time to take those blinders off?
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