The frigid morning wind pierced through our 1950’s single pane windows as if they weren’t there at all. After a restless night of listening to rain pelt the roof, I groggily stumbled around our house to gather my headphones, a Kindle, and my workout gear with plans for a sweaty hour on the elliptical. Then I noticed the rain had stopped. With a forecast of showers all day, this was my chance to get outside. I doubled up T-shirts, threw on a fleece, and headed out for what morphed into an invigorating and beautiful start to the new year!
For 2022, I am embracing an abundancy mindset. I don’t know exactly what that means, but it sounds promising. I’ll flesh it out as I go along, but here’s where I’m at with it, right now. I tend to lean toward scarcity, defense, security, and minimalism. Such leanings have their advantages; however, I need a yang to go along with their ying, if you know what I mean.
My friends at Merriam-Webster define abundance as follows:
- an ample quantity : an abundant amount : profusion
- affluence, wealth
- relative degree of plentifulness
Digging a little deeper, the etymology of abundance traces it to the mid-14th century meaning of copious quantity or supply. The word stems from old French abondance, which in turn comes from Latin abundantia. Abudantia means fullness or plenty and derives from abundare, to overflow. Ab means off, away from and undare means to rise in a wave. Unda simply means wave.
As I learn and write about the etymology of abundance, I feel Present, yes, with a capital P. What are the chances this wonderful word stems from wave?!? My son and I fell in love with surfing in the summer of 2021. I felt Present every time we went out, which was almost every day for six weeks. Our instructor’s aphorism that “there’s no better espresso than a wave to the face” takes on a whole new meaning, now. It’s time to wake up and catch the rising wave of an abundancy mindset!
In 2022, for starters, I’ll seek abundance in health, wealth, love, gratitude, kindness, trust, faith, expectancy, spirituality, connectedness, inspiration, living, giving, openness, listening, learning, relationships, playfulness, and happiness. I’ll balance out thinking about how things could wrong with thinking about how things could go right. I’ll consider that it might be just as logical to believe I’m lucky as it is to believe I’m unlucky, so why not believe that the universe is with me, and I am lucky? I’ll keep my paranoia in check by looking for the best in people and by accepting and allowing more. I’ll see the glass as half full rather than half empty, but what’s more, I’ll envision ways to make it overflow.
These are some of my initial ideas in broad strokes. The concept of abundancy mindset is a work in progress for me this year. The wave is rising, and in the words of Eddie Vedder,
“I’ll ride the wave where it takes me.”
Thanks for joining in the fun!
Love,
P. Gustav Mueller, author of The Present
Relevant Links:
The Release, by Pearl Jam, lead singer, Eddie Vedder