Here we go with another Sunday. Thursday my neighbor, Dee, and I spent about four hours just “hangin’ out. I really enjoy her company. In my entire life I’ve never had anyone to just hang out with. I take that back. When I was a little kid, the neighborhood children gathered at different homes to play. When I was in middle school I had two friends that I spent a lot of time with. In high school I did a few things occasionally with a couple of friends but nothing on a daily or even weekly basis. When I went away to college I never really made a close enough friend to just spend time with until my junior year when I met my first fiance. I don’t really call dating just hangin’ out. There was a goal to the dating. We always did something. We never just hung around doing things spontaneously.
I am very happy that the friendship between Dee and I is growing. I didn’t make a very good first impression with her because I am basically reserved when people first meet me. She formed the same opinion that so many others who have met me for the first time have. Maxine was the one who finally walked over to Dee’s house with me and introduced us. Dee had already lived there a year. Maxine met her within the first couple of days.
We had loads of fun. I got my first pedicure, ate lunch at 2:00 at a small Mexican place Dee knew of, and went shopping at Target for my meal on Friday night with another new friend. We make each other laugh which is good. I can joke around and laugh with her as much as I want to.
The reason I mention Dee is the fact that she is part of my abundance that I am feeling these days. I no longer feel a lack of anything in my life. I subscribe to The Daily Word from our church which really hit home on Thursday, describing how I am feeling these days.
They say it so much better than I do.
Abundance
I am blessed beyond measure.
I am grateful for the simple things in life–streets decorated with colored lights, the night sky ablaze with a thousand tiny stars. I am struck by the beauty that is mine to enjoy.
During a meal with friends, I notice the many ways I am nourished, body and soul. When the sun warms my face or I pull a coat around me against the cold wind, I feel enfolded in the love of God. Lending a helping hand to a stranger or sharing a word of encouragement with a child, I am reminded of all that I have to give. I count my blessings for the small things, and I am grateful for the abundant good in my life. In large and small ways, I am blessed.
Now doesn’t that just say it all? I enjoyed the walk in the sun in the Target parking lot that afternoon. The temperature was in the high 50s but there was no wind whatsoever so I was comfortably warm in my sweater. Inside the store I stopped and watched a young mother tickling her toddler’s belly trying to keep him entertained. The child’s laughter was like fine music to my ears. I was wonderfully entertained myself for a few moments until I realized I was stopping traffic in the crowded aisles.
Thursday night I shared a fun time at church with the wrapping party. My church is by far not an ordinary church. The appreciation of a life well lived is as universally practiced among the members as it can humanly be. There’s a lot of light-hearted clowning around when we get together whatever we are currently doing. It was a big change for me having grown up in an extremely serious, somber, solemn, stoic congregation where any sign of comaraderie on the premises of the church would have been frowned upon. It is wonderful to feel abundant joy when I enter the building and sometimes even during the service. Our minister is not afraid to show that he has a sense of humor.
Yes, my life is full of abundance and I am immeasureably thankful. I hope you are able to see the abundance in your life as well. For someone who grew up feeling much lack –of love, of friendship, of caring parents, of self-esteem, of any sense of worthiness– I have to say I’m terribly glad that I have lived long enough to experience the joy that the abundance in my life has given me.
I may not be able to buy much of the material things that others may be able to do, but my feelings of abundance very much compensate for the “things” other people have and you can’t beat that. Here’s to you having abundance in your life too. Hi ho hi ho it’s off to church I go. Namaste. Attic Annie
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