Two years ago, my word-of-the-year was Breathe. For 2014, it was Dance. (And also Frog — you can read more about that here.)
Breathe. Dance.
Humans have been doing both of those things since the beginning of our existence, as each is absolutely necessary for us to remain vibrantly alive.
Clearly, I chose important words.
I also chose easy words.
Breathe and dance are nice and warm and fuzzy and comfortable words for me. They’re things I’d do even if they weren’t my word for the year.
This year, I wanted a word that would challenge me.
The word that kept popping up for me — in books, in e-courses with the lovely Liv Lane, in conversations with friends — was abundance.
That’s a challenging word for me.
I tend to think more in terms of scarcity — so little time, so little money, but I have so much I want to do and so many bills that need to be paid!
The discourse about abundance these days tells me scarcity is simply a mindset, and the universe is abundant, so I just need to change my mindset and I will attract abundance.
That’s a huge challenge for left-brain me!
I have a hard time trusting (trust was runner-up for this year’s word!) that all will turn out for the best — it brings to mind the naive optimism of the ridiculed philosopher Pangloss in Candide.
The universe will provide? Puh-leeze. Why doesn’t everyone just sign up for that plan?
So I thought more about abundance, which meant looking up the origins and various meanings of the word. It means “fullness, over-sufficient supply, overflowing, affluence, wealth.”
Which brought to mind something like this:
The cup runneth over!
Having all that we need is great, but perhaps abundance is a bit much? And who’s going to clean up that mess?
Probing further, I learned that abundance derives from the Latin abundantia, which comes from abundare:
That doesn’t seem quite right, does it?
Instead of overflowing, abundance means the waves and the undulating have stopped.
But that never really happens. If I know anything for sure, it’s that everything changes!
How can we embrace abundance if it means denying the ocean waves we ride through life — ups and downs, joys and sorrows, mild winters and polar vortexes??
I tried to map out what abundance (as the absence of undulation) might look like when it mixes with life’s gorgeous, wavy, flowing ocean (shown here in green):
Mindfulness — and experience — teach us that we are constantly pendulating, constantly cycling between rest and activity, excitement and boredom, doing and non-doing. A flat line is never a good sign…
So the other day, while my daughter painted at the dining room table, I sat down and joined her. I couldn’t come up with a satisfactory diagram of mindful abundance in my usual linear fashion, so I played around with the watercolors. And I came up with this:
Even though it doesn’t work etymologically, I decided my word would be
abunDANCE!
This brave dancer leaps right into the ocean. She experiences fullness in and above and below the many waves of her dynamic life. There is richness and vibrancy in the light AND in the dark. For her, abundance is not experienced by floating on the top of the water, but by leaping and swirling and twirling and dancing right in the middle.
Embracing abundance doesn’t mean sitting back and hoping the universe will provide — for one thing, there’s no air to breathe or water to sustain us on those paths.
Embracing abunDANCE means dancing with wonder. It’s surfing the wave instead of hiding beneath it or flying right over it. It doesn’t mean our life circumstances radically change for us; instead, we change how we relate to our life, and in so doing, are transformed.
It’s not about passivity; it’s about action.
It’s trusting. And hoping. And working.
We can abandon our worries about scarcity — not enough time, not enough stuff. We have today, we have the present moment.
Don’t let it get too late so soon. There’s always time for dancing — how about this afternoon?!
The word dance is of uncertain origin. It comes from words meaning to leap or to tremble, as in “for joy” and “in awe,” respectively. The word dance in the Old and New Testaments describes a whirling, circular, sacred motion. abunDANCE is about living joy-fully and awe-somely. It’s about marveling at the beauty and mystery of the world around us.
When surprising coincidences or synchronicities occur, or when it seems the universe is providing, we can decide it’s just statistics and probability. Or we can see it, as Arianna Huffington encourages us to do in Thrive, as “life’s secret door to wonder.”
Living as Rumi suggests we do is challenging for me. How can I know for sure the universe is conspiring in my favor? Is there some proof, or an equation, perhaps? You know, Rumi didn’t have to worry about a 401(k) or anything…
Well, why not live as Rumi suggests? If I work more than I hope, what have I got to lose, besides worry and stress? Abundance is a challenge, but since it’s 56% dance, it feels like a safe investment. I’ll take the {polar} plunge.
So for 2015, I am choosing abunDANCE. I am choosing to appreciate what I have, rather than thinking I always need more. I am choosing to embrace wonder and awe and possibility, rather than thinking I already know all the choreography. I am choosing to trust, rather than worrying about whether the ending pose will come together perfectly.
appreciate. wonder. dream. trust. live. work. dance.
Sounds like a great way to spend a year.
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What’s YOUR word for 2015? Share in the comments below!
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water photo credit: shioshvili via photopin cc
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