Thursday, December 15, 2016

Understanding Abundance

I want to share with you a bit of my journey with essential oils. When I first bought my starter kit, it was mostly for extra support during sniffle season. My child catches the sniffles rather a lot—he inherited that from me—and I welcome all tools to help improve wintertime quality of life. It was an easy choice. If peppermint helped a little in those long and dark nights of hot showers, humidifiers, the nose frida and tears, it was money well spent. I considered everything else gravy. Three months later, I have noticed a change in myself and in my family. The physical changes are wonderful--I don't like to think about how anyone does without oils for support--but the primary change is in my heart life and that of my family. We are increasingly more prone to act toward each other from an internal place of abundance, rather than an assumption of scarcity. In the night, when my child is wet and cold and needs me, less and less often do I think “I don’t have enough sleep for this right now.” More often I respond with “Come, let me share with you from what I have.” The change is not in how much I have, but in my attitude. Because of the ways that essential oils have helped me, I really do have more to offer to my family, but it's not really about how much I have. After all, Scrooge had plenty, and he still lived with the assumption that he did not have enough to share. I may not have much right now. I am learning to live like I am enough and like I have enough. To buy oils, I have to look at my life and decide that I have enough. Oils are extravagant. Can I do without them? Yes. Do I want to? No. Oils in my life are blessing. They make my son happy. They soothe and bring joy to my husband. They drive my pregnant weepies away and lift my spirits. They are a tangible gift that I can give to anyone, and expect that they will also experience blessing. Blessing is why I keep doing oils: not because they help with the sniffles and relieve my occasional bloating. I like those benefits. I use and love oils because they encourage me to live from a place of blessing. As an unexpected gift, oils are helping me shift my focus from myself and what I may sometime lack to what I have now and can joyfully share with those around me. Oils are transforming my body, yes. More importantly, oils are drawing my heart to live in gratitude and to embrace an assumption of abundance.