Do you remember a time when you would have been thrilled to have what you have now?
When I returned home from a spring semester of college in Barcelona I weighed close to twenty pounds more than I had when I left. I had spent days walking on cobblestone streets, exploring medieval monasteries and hiking up hills in the Pyrenees. But the months of living on a student loan diet of bread and cheese took its toll. The day I walked of the plane and my family saw me, my five foot two self would have been thrilled to weigh what I weigh now.
Twenty-five years later I had a year when every unforeseen financial hit came in a matter of months. My late husband and I had just purchased a beautiful but beaten down century old building to renovate. The month we closed on the sale John was diagnosed with a terminal cancer. That same summer my fifteen year old headed off to college, three years prior to plan. The debt mushroomed from all directions. Every week I studied the list of creditors and amounts owed, trying to navigate the unnerving numbers. I would have been thrilled to be focusing on my savings like I do today.
When my heart was broken after my husband’s death, the ocean of loss could pull me under at any given moment of my days. I looked normal on the outside, but the on the inside I was gasping for air, trying to keep my head above water, hoping not to drown in the sorrow. I ached from the fatigue of trying not to fall into the abyss. I would have been thrilled to worry about whether it would be a day or a week before I get to enjoy the company of a beloved in my life like I do now.
When I focus on what I haven’t done, I feel like a failure. When I focus on what I have accomplished, I feel like a success. When I focus on what I don’t have, I experience lack. When I focus on what I do have, I experience abundance.
Going forward, my intentions are to celebrate the progress I have made as I look to my future goals, to acknowledge my past which has prepared me, and to have gratitude for today always. So with the weekend ahead, I will celebrate my savings, look forward to a date night soon, and refuse to fret over the loss of those elusive final five pounds. I will be thrilled to have what I have now.
What progress on your path can you celebrate?
Are you focusing on your lack or your abundance?
What can you be thrilled with now?
