Do you live a life of scarcity or abundance?

I love this question.

I’m fully human, so I’m a mixture of viewing the world as infinitely abundant and full of woeful scarcity. I lived through some tumultuous years that ended in a profound shift from grotesque self-loathing to overflowing self-love. I should write a book about it, but I truly don’t know if what happened to me could ever be repeated for any other human on the planet. It was unique.

Despite that monumental change, I still have financial insecurity. It’s not debilitating. I don’t worry about money every waking minute, but it’s there. My mind tells me I’m OK, but my gut worries. It’s OK. I’ll live through it.

So while I know love is abundant, even infinite, I still have fear.

I like being human.

I am much like your childhood best friend and your relative.

Hope for the best. Expect the worst.

Everything is relative, having a little or having a lot. What does ‘having’ mean anyway. Can we ever really ‘have’ anything. Life is a state of flux. Like the clouds at evening forming patterns never seen before then changing into something else.

I prefer to walk on your side of the street. The sun is brighter on this side. Life is good and fortunately I have the resources to keep it good for the rest of the time I’m here.
I intent to what I can until I can’t.

I’m an optimist and I have a lot of good things in my life. Call it luck, call it fate, call it whatever, I’m not sure what it is. I hate the word “blessed” but yet that’s appropriate for my situation, at the present.

I live in a world of regret. I try to make incremental improvements every day. I’m living paycheck to paycheck. I would prefer to stay in my warm bed all day and Fluther.

Neither. I try to live a life of moderation.

I am not rich, I am not poor. I live comfortably but not lavishly.

I realize that life can be better, but it can also be much, much worse.

Life is never a black/white situation. It is always some shade of grey.

All the optimism in the world won’t pay the bills or cure an illness.

Life is a fight against disease, hunger, thirst, and exposure. Modern society has added a fight against an empty bank account as an additional barrier to fulfilling the other needs.

People, generally, are out to solve their own problems. I don’t think anyone is inherently evil, most are inherently selfish and that can manifest as “evil” from a given person’s perspective.

It’s a lot easier to be optimistic when your job pays enough to support a comfortable lifestyle and isn’t dangling at the whim of someone who considers you a cog in a system to use or dispose of at their will.

My glass is plenty full enough, but the problem is that it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore the other glasses emptying out in front of me. Must life appear to be about struggle?

Abundance!! It took me a while to come to this place after my husband left but now I have a life full of meaning, travel, art, financial security and friends and family love. The only thing lacking is romantic love but it’s possible that that might upset the apple cart.

I have always been an optimistic and enthusiastic type and lived a life of abundance for years until this recession completely destroyed me over the past 6 years. From relative riches to rags. I lived simply but well and was truly possessed of an extreme sense of gratitude for the life I had built/designed. While I can still appreciate and enjoy certain small moments I am operating from a place of extreme scarcity at this time and the future is not looking positive, at all.

I am fortunate that I am able to surrender to the “one day at a time” philosophy but, in all honesty, unless something really great unfolds for me, at my age now and having known the ultimate joy of abundance, well…I have no intention of continuing to age and live in poverty in my not so golden years. Nope, I’ve had a good run and while I am hanging in there for now, I make no promises as to whether I will continue to only hang in there. After truly living and thriving I will not settle for merely existing and barely surviving. Time will tell.

I live a life of abundance. I feel so lucky. I was talking to someone about this yesterday, and about how while we might have a whinge about things, really, we are so, so lucky. Even if my life took a dramatic turn and I wasn’t as fortunate as I am now, given where I live, I would still be very well off. I’m an optimist. I very conscious of how fortunate I am and of the wonderful people around me.

I like your terminology. I’ve always been a “life of scarcity” kind of gal, but I’m really trying to change my outlook. It’s a weird cycle – the more you appreciate what you have, the more you have, and the more you complain, the more there is to complain about.

I’m getting there.

Abundance, for sure. I have everything I need, and so much more.

You know how the bad guys in movies always say that they will take away everything the good guy loves, until there’s nothing left? I thought about that recently. It would take such a long time to take away everything and everyone I love. Those bad guys would have their work cut out for them.

They could start with the things, which are least important. They’d take my piano, and the fifty favourite books I love, my old teddy bear, favourite TV shows…chocolate bars, ice cream, and pancakes with cheese…my soft bed, the apartment I love, and the bathtub I adore.

Then, they’d go on to take activities. They would have to take singing, reading, training and playing with dogs, walking in the woods or on the beach, white-water rafting, spending quiet time alone, looking at the stars, roasting apples over a campfire, travelling, and watching snow fall.

Finally, they’d have to take all the people and animals. My two dogs, and my sister’s dog. My three best friends. My sisters. My friends from university and school. My parents. My grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. My Fluther friends, and the people who are mentors and role models to me.

Yep. Abundance.