Note: This post was written for Bridget Pilloud, for her Peaces of Prosperity Project. I was so honored to be among the 30 or so writers invited to write about prosperity. It was also written while my beloved brother Sam was still alive. This article was scheduled to be published on Bridget’s site on June 13, 2012, the day that Sam died from stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It was instead published today. I will miss my brother forever.. deeply and in ways I am not ready to write about. He was my heart and more.
Here is my article on prosperity..
Staying In Your Senses In Present Time
I am thinking about prosperity differently these days and that is probably a very good thing.. adaptive, more fluid, less weighty, a sort of improved version. I don’t typically like to define things but there are a few things that I notice about when I feel most prosperous and when I am able to call it most easily to me.
Prosperity usually happens through my senses, and it almost always happens in present-time. It’s so much simpler to feel like there is enough, or more-than-enough when I stay in my senses, instead of in my busy-over-thinking-head. There is so much rhubarb in the garden right now.. tons of it. I know I won’t be able to use it all in my green juice concoctions or the strawberry-rhubarb cobbler I make and I’ll forget to give it to friends. I see how much my local market charges for beautiful stalks of rhubarb and having it for free in the backyard makes me feel fortunate and bountiful. Every March, no matter what the winter has been like, that rhubarb starts to emerge. It’s the most reliable thing I’ve ever seen. A gift practically unbidden.
Prosperity is more visceral for me than financial. It usually happens in a moment when I know without a doubt that I am blessed.. it’s a feeling that washes over me and gets my attention, in my heart, by way of my senses. When I get to see or taste or hear something that I know not everybody has access to, I feel incredibly prosperous. Every year around my birthday, the legendary dance troupe Alvin Ailey comes to Boston, and for decades I have rarely missed the annual event. And although I have seen their signature piece “Revelations” countless times, it never fails to move me to tears, to joy. I feel filled up to overflowing. Is this prosperity? How can it not be?
This year more than ever, with my sweetest younger brother braving a horrible diagnosis, I have learned the lesson that the best moments come from staying in my heart and staying in present-time. Even when I am feeling too much. Everything becomes precious.. everything.
I used to think that prosperity would happen “to” me when I crossed a certain financial boundary, when certain measures were in place, when I could enumerate various things on a grownup checklist. And some of those things have happened and some have come and gone, and some have not materialized. And I know that the waiting and the looking to the future rob me of so much peace of mind, and of noticing the fullness of what is already here. The pleasures of what’s all around me, all the time. I know this sounds simple, I know it’s been said. But it’s oh so true and knowing it has made life so much better.
I was born in the springtime and this is my season of beautiful prosperity, always. I am enchanted by the greens, I watch the nature on our land change colors all day long into the evening. It’s perfect and more than enough.
Finding prosperity right here right now is so much easier than setting your sights out there. Come back to your body, back to your senses and see how filled up you might feel if you lived in the present. If you shifted and measured from a different place. I promise you it’s better this way.
With love from my heart.. to yours-
Amy Zellmer says
Thank you for this reminder to live in the “now” rather than constantly be worrying about what’s in the future!!
Lisa says
Hi Amy… best way always, right? xox
Karen Ribeiro says
Oh Lisa! I welled up when I read about your brother and send you my deepest condolences. I too have lost a younger brother and learned the preciousness of being present with my mother when she passed much too young. Every moment is a gift and we practice remembering… Thank you.
Lisa says
Karen.. thank you for your compassion and your condolences. Losing our younger brothers is heartbreaking.. I think you are in Massachusetts also.. maybe we can connect and talk.. Love what you said about “practicing remembering”.. beautiful and sacred words. thank YOU.
Love and blessings.. Lisa
Michele Bergh says
I really enjoyed your post. I am so sorry about your brother. I love the way you talk about prosperity. I offer a Prosperity Blooms eCourse and feel the same way about it not really being about money. It’s so much more about being in the flow of life. Thank you for sharing.
Lisa says
Michele.. love the prosperity blooms title..beautiful. agree about the flow being the focus.. and thank you for your kind condolences.
Love and blessings.. Lisa
Meg says
The abundance radiated from this post, what a beautiful gift I received in reading it. Affirmation of the knowingness there is enough for us all.
Lisa says
Hi Meg..that makes me truly happy.. you’re a love, thank you. I know that I always need to be reminded of enough-ness.
Love to you..Lisa
Teresa says
ah, yes, a definition where prosperity = abundance makes my heart dance in the light
how wonderful for you to have written this in such a difficult time, for you to have published it even in your grief
thank you for this beauty
hugs and butterflies,
~Teresa~
Lisa says
Teresa.. from the depths of grief came so much love and beauty these last weeks. it was truly life changing.. Love your dancing heart.. and of course your gratitude deck.. I need to buy one.
Love to you, lisa
Jessica says
What a gorgeous way to look at prosperity — so different from the more-more-more we so often chase in money and things. I’m so sorry for your loss, and inspired by the knowledge that you’ll find some kind of abundance even in your grief.
Lisa says
Jessica.. thank you..filling up with reverence for what is, is so satisfying. As we all know, it’s so perceptual. Life loves life and my heart is full with many things even in this time of profound loss. love to you, Lisa
Tracey Ceurvels says
Your words in this are so alive, so vibrant. I can see springtime, the rhubarb, you watching the colors of your land.Yes, abundance is so much more than $. It’s these moments, these feelings, these thoughts that bring us the most joy. Thank you!
Lisa says
Tracey.. it’s lovely to know that you can see what I see.. that it translates on the page, thank you. I loved your writing too.. sensualists both of us. thank you for this.. love and blessings, Lisa
Hilary Parry | Tarot by Hilary says
This was a beautiful post about prosperity… it’s so much more about the bounty of life than cold hard cash. Thank you for bringing us back to that with your wonderfully written post.
My condolences on your brother’s passing.
Lisa says
Hilary, thank you for the condolences and for the lovely comment. Love to you.. Lisa
Julie Geigle says
I really enjoyed your thoughts on prosperity. I’ve recently begun visiting my mother-in-law regularly in the nursing home (without my husband – I had to overcome a lot of fears to go without him) and even though she can no longer speak I feel her love and joy emanate from her being when my daughter and I walk into her room. She gave so much of herself to my family while she was in good health it feels so good to return the favor – so good and prosperous!
Lisa says
Julie this is so poignant and sweet.. so many ways we can feel filled up with small moments of life.. the true prosperity that brings us the most bang for the (buck) is in the heart..I think when we examine what brings us the most joy it’s always from that place..lovely that you can honor your mother-in-law this way and find the real connection that takes you beyond the fear. so beautiful. Love to you, Lisa
Inga Deksne says
“Finding prosperity right here right now is so much easier than setting your sights out there.” – these are golden words.
Living in the now is so precious, cherishing every moment of your life because there might not be tomorrow.
I’m very sorry for your loss, my mum passed away when I was 20 and I regret that I had’t told her so many things.
Lisa says
Inga.. I hope you let yourself move beyond the regrets..I’m so sorry to lose your mother at such a tender age. Maybe you could write her a letter and put all of what was left unspoken into the letter.. it would really move some energy and bring some healing in for you..I think moving grief, unspoken words, all of those energies out of our bodies is essential.. try it? I hope you will.
Thank you for writing.. Love and blessings to you.. Lisa