Day 11: 40 Day Abundance Meditations -- Rabbit hangover

 God is lavish, unfailing Abundance, the rich omnipresent substance of the Universe.  This all-providing Source of infinite prosperity is individualized as me—the Reality of me.*

So this is Day 11 which means that it starts back on the first of the 10 meditations for the second cycle.  We will cycle through all ten meditations four times in these forty days.  I am in Buenos Aires now so that shows you how well it manifests.  On day one I was in Sacramento now I am in Argentina.  End of discussion.

Here in Buenos Aires there are still difficulties.   I woke up at 10am (5am pacific time) after having eaten rabbit at 10pm last night so the morning is slightly atypical.  You haven't lived until you have a rabbit hangover.  (It's like a chicken hangover only a bit more stringy.)  Within 10 minutes of waking up I was informed that we were all mobilizing within 15 minutes to go to a market.

I had planned to my meditation, prayer and contemplative time upon awakening.  The old me would have simply said, okay, I'll be ready right away.  The new me checked in with "the reality of me" and found that while I still had a lingering belief in the lack: as in, if I didn't mobilize right away I'd be a bad sister-in-law and also miss my ONLY chance to go to this market in Buenos Aires with a rabbit hangover!  I realized that I could actually find out where the market is, eat my breakfast and do complete my spiritual ablutions and still join them.

I communicated that (and that was fine), began my ablutions and then was called into an hourlong zany fun computer fest trying to book ferry tickets to Uruguay with my brother-in-law (who had been at it for 2 hours).  At noon some of the family left.  We succeeded in booking tickets at 12:30pm and then the rest left to join them for a tour of the National Theater.  I'd now been up for 2 1/2 hours and not meditated or prayed OR gone to the market or the National Theater OR shaken the rabbit hangover (burp, sigh).

So they left and I've been meditating one the nature of abundance within.  It's the knowledge that all is well despite any appearance to the contrary and while today might be my only chance to go to the National Theater or this huge market, it's also my only chance to meditate on the nature of abundance in an apartment in Buenos Aires.  I can make a different choice anytime and today I choose abundance (over rabbit).

*If you are just joining our show in progress, meditate on this for 15 minutes today.  You can start the meditations any day, don't worry about the day it says it is, but then do it for 40 days.  At any time you can look ahead or behind and see how it works by going to this link:  How to do the 40 day Meditation Program

Day 10: 40 Day Abundance Meditations -- Inner Presence

I keep my mind and thoughts off “this world” and I place my entire focus on God within as the only cause of my prosperity.  I acknowledge the Inner Presence as the only activity in my financial affairs, as the substance of all things visible.  I place my faith in the Principle of Abundance in action within me.”*

This is about focussing within.  When I am focussed on my to do list and what I lack and what presents I need to buy and wrap and what the heck am I going to get for that teenager who only wants money but that's so unimaginative but maybe I should get what they really want...I can stop and breathe and focus within.  That is where my peace and my abundance comes from.  

*If you are just joining our show in progress, meditate on this for 15 minutes today.  You can start the meditations any day, don't worry about the day it says it is, but then do it for 40 days.  At any time you can look ahead or behind and see how it works by going to this link:  How to do the 40 day Meditation Program

Day 9: 40 Day Abundance Meditations -- I am in the flow

 When I am aware of the God-Self within me as my total fulfillment, I am totally fulfilled.  I am now aware of this Truth, I have found the secret of life, and I relax in the knowledge that the Activity of Divine Abundance is eternally operating in my life.  I simply have to be aware of the flow, the radiation, of that Creative Energy, which is continuously, easily and effortlessly pouring forth from my Divine Consciousness.  I am now aware.  I am now in the flow.*

There is an ease to this meditation.  I have let go and let God.  I know the Truth.  I am aware so therefore I can relax.  This makes sense to me and speaks to me as I leave on a 10 day trip to Buenos Aires and a 30 day health leave from work.  It is imperative for my health that I relax, am aware and am in the flow.

So I shall be.

*If you are just joining our show in progress, meditate on this for 15 minutes today.  You can start the meditations any day, don't worry about the day it says it is, but then do it for 40 days.  At any time you can look ahead or behind and see how it works by going to this link:  How to do the 40 day Meditation Program

Day 8: 40 Day Abundance Meditations -- Restoration

My consciousness of the Spirit within me as my unlimited Source is the Divine Power to restore the years the locusts have eaten, to make all things new, to lift me up to the High Road of abundant prosperity.  This awareness, understanding and knowledge of Spirit appears as every visible form and experience that I could possibly desire.*

Gulp: I have a confession to make.  As long as I've been working with this meditation, I never new that "restore the years the locusts have eaten" was a Bible verse!  I've always found it a ponderous phrase and thought it was sort of irritating and out of place until now when I Googled it and found that not only is it a Bible verse, it's one that merits a little poster like the one above. It gets worse:  the Bible verse is Joel 2:25 and I didn't even know there was a guy named Joel in the Bible let alone that he wrote a book--and I'm studying to be a minister!

Which brings me to vulnerability. Even though I didn't know that it existed, I knew that I've been blessed enough to reap the fruits of this Bible verse:  I have had many  years eaten by the locusts of my own pride, vainglory and excesses (I'll explain vainglory another time, it's pretty cool).  One of the principal tools I've used to recover and change my ways is vulnerability: being willing to tell the truth about myself to someone, and sometimes many people.  In the years when I was lying about myself to everyone, trying to convince you that I was special or important, I never believed that anyone liked me.  Now, when I tell the truth about myself (which happens upon occasion, imperfectly), if you like me, I might believe you.

Please watch this video to learn more about the vital importance of cultivating vulnerability in healing and experiencing joy:

*If you are just joining our show in progress, meditate on this for 15 minutes today.  You can start the meditations any day, don't worry about the day it says it is, but then do it for 40 days.  At any time you can look ahead or behind and see how it works by going to this link:  How to do the 40 day Meditation Program

Day 7: 40 Day Abundance Meditations -- Let go and let God

The Divine Consciousness that I am is forever expressing its true nature of Abundance.  This is its responsibility, not mine.  My only responsibility is to be aware of this Truth.  Therefore, I am totally confident in letting go and letting God appear as the abundant all-sufficiency in my life and affairs.*

Wow.  This might be the hardest and most important direction in the meditations.  And yet it should be the easiest.  All I am told here is that while abundance is operating through and as my consciousness at all times, this is its responsibility, not mine.  All I have to do is be AWARE of this Truth. I don't have to create abundance.  

This is difficult for me to square with another spiritual truth I believe in which is "faith without works is dead"--in other words, one should pray for one's good but then move confidently towards one's good.  Can I really just let go?  Can I really just sit around being "aware" and be confident that abundance will manifest in my life?

The way I reconcile these is through experience.  It is my experience that on the one hand once I plant a seed of intention and passion in my consciousness, it will start to sprout and grow without me.  This is a good metaphor because you really don't have to stand around watching a seed grow into a plant for it to grow into a plant.  The plant will need water and sun and nutrients from the soil, and I can help make sure that those are available.  But the plant doesn't need me to make it grow.   I feel sheepish about this metaphor because although it is powerful and true, it is, like most good metaphors overused.  My son just spent 2 months at an organic farm in Hawaii where he had a lifetime full of plant metaphors.  Now he's in Costa Rica working with elevation (sea level, 2000 feet, etc.) metaphors.

Yet, on the other hand I know that God cannot do for me, what it cannot do through me.  So I do have to in effect be the soil for the plant.  In metaphysical thought my consciousness is the soil into which the seed is planted or, more accurately, Divine Consciousness accessed through me is the soil.  I can till the soil by meditating, praying and increasing my receptivity to the Truth.  Today I commit to that but then I let go of the result.  I let go of control.  I let go of the idea that I am making the plant grow.  I watch it grow and I await its fruits, nuts and flowers.

*If you are just joining our show in progress, meditate on this for 15 minutes today.  You can start the meditations any day, don't worry about the day it says it is, but then do it for 40 days.  At any time you can look ahead or behind and see how it works by going to this link:  How to do the 40 day Meditation Program