Prosperity Experiment: Tasting the Cornucopia
Fascinating, this experiment in letting go to receive.
I’m actually enjoying NOT spending money because it’s so fun to see how I’ll get surprised and supported, financially and otherwise.
On days 1 & 2, as I already reported, I had a nice flow of cash I had not expected. In addition, I scheduled a radio interview with a NY Times Bestselling author AND a literary agency in New York requested more information about my book.
On day 3 of the experiment, I had NO bills in the mail (if you checked my mailbox every day, you’d know that this is a historically unusual experience). Instead, the mail offered me a $19.68 refund from a company I didn’t know owed me money, a $10 starbucks gift certificate and a statement from a credit card showing a zero balance (when I thought I still had one payment to go).
Day 4 (yesterday) David and I picked Maddie up from her 24 hour retreat at our church.
A little history here: We belong to a Catholic church associated with one of the Universities in our area, and we drive about 30 minutes to get there because it’s a diverse, inclusive community where I feel at home. I sought this place out when Maddie was old enough to start receiving religious instruction. At the time I was struggling with whether I wanted to pass our heritage on to her at all, due to its messy and far from perfect record on equality and…other stuff. It’s not the place here to go into my whole history with Catholicism, so l’ll leave it at this: I finally decided I’d never find a perfect church, as long as it was run by human beings. I also thought that if I wanted to teach my daughter compassion then I could start with showing her the power and healing you can find even in the midst of imperfection. The experience has been wonderfully expansive. But I was not prepared for what it offered me this weekend!
Maddie was telling us that the retreat was focused Transfiguration. Frankly, she’s not that interested in the Christian images for God…she relates more to the Divinity expressed in an atom or a galaxy, scientist that she is. Still, she had a good time and we had an interesting discussion about the possibilities for transfiguration present to all of us, in every moment….Christ showing us how to remove our masks to reveal the GodHead hiding beneath.
And then Maddie pulled a small white piece of paper out of her pocket.
“Here Mom. One of the College Counselors gave it to us. I figured you’d like it. It’s a prayer.”
My eyes drank in these words:
Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-Bearer, Life-giver
Source of all that is and all that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurst we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In the times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and forever. Amen.
By the end of the prayer (the author of which is unfortunately unknown to me) I was crying. Not only because the prayer touched me, but because, as I said to Maddie and David, I was so grateful we had found a church that could connect her with her anscestors AND give her a prayer like this.
Last night I was reviewing the results of the experiment so far in my mind. I lay in bed with Bridget as she fell to sleep, smelling the sweet smell of her hair and feeling the soft rise and fall of her chest against me. Today I’m celebrating 19 years since I met that exquisite human being who’s still my husband. I’m sitting in my home this morning… which is actually clean because all these weeks of “cleansing” my mind and my body have produced time, space and energy to purge my life of all sorts of stuff that no longer served me. I’m listening to an orchestra play music that reminds me of Ireland, where I’m returning in a few months. And in a few minutes I’m heading out the door to facilitate a meditation group with my Mom. I feel as if I’m living in a vast and glorious world that blesses me moment to moment to moment. I’m tasting the Cornucopia.
Are you up for a prosperity experiment? Let me know. I’d love to hear what’s happening for you.
Kimberly Schneider
www.facebook.com/kimberlyvschneider
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