Manifesting Abundance

It was a big week for heavy lifting at the Land School. On Friday we delivered the Holiday Produce baskets to LCS. This is a relatively new thing for the Land School. It all started with a conversation I had with our friend Kate Stout in the spring of 2009. She was talking about how the entire world needs to shift to a more sustainable way of life. As energy resources become more and more scarce, we will have to adjust to a low energy future. That adjustment could become a source of distress for people, as people perceive the scarcity of energy as an overall scarcity of everything. This perception of scarcity might cause people to hoard wealth or become selfish in other ways. Kate knows that there is actually enough resources for every person to live a magnificent life. In a low energy future, the challenge will be as much a psychological one as a physical one. As people hoard out of fear, they actually contribute to the very scarcity that they fear. What if instead of fear of scarcity, people acted in the sure expectation of generosity and abundance? Instead of tying up resources, those resources are multiplied. As people begin to act from an expectation of abundance, it also frees up their thinking, which can also be frozen in fear, just like the resources that are tied up. The freedom of thought that abundance offers is like a metaphysical opening of spirit to both the idea of support from the outside and generosity to those outside of the circle. A friend once told me that what you focus on grows. Thus if one focuses on scarcity, the scarcity will grow and if one focuses on abundance, the abundance will grow. 

As a person who is by nature skeptical, I take on very few ideas without having to overcome my own disbelief. One way that I release the disbelief is to willingly suspend it and act as if the new idea is true. Then I look at the results. Then I may or may not allow the entrance of the new idea. It was such with this idea of “manifesting abundance.” In 2009 I consciously decided to manifest abundance in the garden. It was a subtle shift in my thinking. But by the end of the season, we were overflowing with vegetables. I don’t know if the change in thinking contributed to the abundance. It might have been rain or fertilizer or weeding or people coming to help at the right times. There was so much abundance that at the end of the season we had over a 1000 pounds of potatoes and easily 500 pounds of onions and many many squash, among other veggies. It was overwhelming. We decided to send out a Holiday Basket in time for Thanksgiving and it was a smashing success. So in 2010 we tried the manifesting abundance thing again. This year, we had plenty of potatoes again, incredible amounts of squash, and lots of carrots, turnips and garlic. Our friends helped us out with the onions and once again we had an incredible holiday basket. So we are two for two.

This brings me to the heavy lifting. By the time we were done loading the baskets with all the abundance, they were easily 40 pounds. We lifted each one at least four times as we were processing and loading and unloading. With 50 baskets, that translates into an 8000 pound couple of days for Donna, Jen and I. Add to that the harvest tubs and sacks that Donna and I moved around before loading the baskets and it pushes us over 10000 pounds. I am not regretting the decision to manifest abundance, but my body will appreciate a couple days off to recover. Thanks to everyone who purchased holiday baskets this year!

Photo of the abundant pumpkin harvest this year: