Abundance Theory

Last Tuesday night was our monthly free legal clinic, at which I do intake. I cannot shake the look on the face of the middle aged, clearly middle class client who had just been served foreclosure papers.

One of the blogs I read regularly wrote about the "abundance theory" the very next day. To quote, "abundance theory is all about trusting that you'll find what you need, because there's plenty of everything available...[M]aking the mental shift of focusing on the abundance in your environment will cause your life to improve in all kinds of areas that may seem unrelated."

I think anyone capable of writing that sentence has not done intake in a free legal clinic lately.

Someone who has enough income, enough food, and enough support, material or otherwise, can believe in the abundance theory. Abundance theory is a logical extension of the principles of frugality - by lessening one's reliance on and devotion to the material world, one enjoys and savors life more. Simplify your life, appreciate and use what you have, and life becomes more meaningful and richer.

My belief in small moments of great reward is probably a mini-version of the abundance theory.

But as I noted at the beginning of this post, last Tuesday night was our monthly free legal clinic. Our client numbers are growing. I bake more cookies and bring home fewer leftovers each time.

The pleasant, neatly dressed man sat very erect as I took down contact information. He had an anxious smile and haunted eyes as he answered my questions.

"What brought you to our clinic tonight?"

He and his wife had just been served with foreclosure papers. In a million years, he never expected to be in foreclosure.

He never came right out and said that last sentence, but he didn't have to. There was panic in his eyes, despite his attempt to project calm and self-assurance.

He is losing his home.

This story, or a variation of it, is repeated monthly at our local free legal clinic. This story, or a variation of it, is repeated weekly at our local free medical clinic. This story, or a variation of it, is repeated daily at our local emergency food pantry, where former volunteers are now on the receiving end for the first time in their lives.

There is a Zen saying, "enough is a feast." Zen thought often puzzles me; this one I have turned over in my head for some 30 years. Some days I understand it: my small moments of great reward are a feast by any standard. But when I am working at the legal clinic or reading about the abundance theory in the midst of the Great Recession, I disagree. Enough is not a feast; enough is merely enough.

In these troubled economic times, there are too many who don't have enough, let alone a feast. The foreclosure papers are on the door, the bank account is empty, and all the cookies in the world - or at least all the cookies I tote to clinic each month - cannot fill the gap. If there is an abundance anywhere, it is an abundance of not enough in more than enough of our homes.