It’s spring and I’ve been deeply fixated on the plants living in various bins and pots I have on my stoop. Maybe it’s because the calendula have been blooming all through winter, keeping me steadily engaged with bright possibilities, or the nasturtiums that are erupting from surprising places such as the retired-rope doormat (one plant even managed to flower from whatever nourishment they had within the seed and the vermicompost debris and faraway desert dust they found in the rope’s fibers).
And so, I am thinking about abundance. And about what we can sow, what harvests we might in the future reap. And about how while money is a helpful tool for the circulation of resources, it is dangerous to focus too much on its accumulation.
Real poverty is the belief that the purpose of life
is acquiring wealth and owning things.
Real wealth is not the possession of property
but the recognition that our deepest need, as human beings,
is to keep developing our natural and acquired powers
and to relate to other human beings.
— Grace Lee Boggs
I included this quote in my 2021 chapbook, abandon our nightmares, along with the activity below. In 2020, I participated in a “21 days of abundance” practice at the invitation of mai doan. I adapted the activity to offer an opportunity to reflect on the entanglement between wealth, generosity, justice, and abundance.
activity:
Write this statement 8 times by hand:
I am only as wealthy as I am generous.
Wealth is nothing without justice.
We all deserve to flourish and have enough to care for ourselves,
our loved ones, and our communities.
Justice is necessary for our prosperity and growth,
for our satisfaction and abundance.
I ask my ancestors who had difficulties due to lack of justice,
to bless me as I choose to live differently.
I ask the spirits of the land I live on to inspire me to live
in abundance, justice, and generosity.
This task can take about an hour.
Sit comfortably, relax, breathe deeply.
Take moments to rest as needed. After that, record yourself reading this statement with sincerity, on audio or video.
There are many ways in which our different ancestors experienced or perpetrated “lack of justice.” I hope this activity can be an invitation to contemplate that and move forward toward greater justice and abundance.
If you’ve done the 21 days of abundance practice, I’d be glad to hear your reactions/reflections here.
narinda heng 