I choose to feel abundant. Wealth is an inside job.
Abundance looks different to each of us. Some people have incalculable material wealth but are bereft of a sense of purpose or a greater vision for their life and so are left feeling lost. While others are considered poor in financial wealth but walk around radiating love and the king of light that has an inestimable worth. Lakshmi is the auspiciousness that begins to bloom in our life when we align our every action with the work our soul has come here to do.
Lakshmi reminds us of the ultimate goal, which is not making money, but being able to know our true bliss. What makes us feel lit up like a glow stick while we’re doing it? What work doesn’t feel like work at all? Lakshmi is a wink to find that vocation, that bliss so that what is within us comes into full bloom through something we can do and show the world.
Lakshmi represents both the gold we can hold in our hands and the gold we can become by doing work that feeds our soul. She’s the reminder that true abundance doesn’t come from our bank statement. It comes from a state of mind we enter when we know we are contributing great worth to the world in the effort of becoming more love.
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I am my authentic self in all circumstances.
When we find the courage to be true to who we are, a vitality returns to us, a voice that’s both moving and compelling simply because it’s authentic. Saint Perpetua’s words in her very personal and emotional diary were so impactful that 200 years later the renowned church father Augustine would write about their beauty and truth.
Saint Perpetua suggest that there is no greater power than choosing to remain our authentic self in all circumstances. She’s that person who remained loyal to her soul. And she urges us through her example to embrace the power of being authentic now. Even in the face of her death, she courageously held fast to her truth, that she was Christian. Her right hand reveals the Christ mudra.
She also reminds us that journal writing can be a sacred act of returning to ourselves, of listening to the soul-voice inside us, and of going inward to find our answers. Perpetua is a call to a journal writing practice – even if it’s just to record our dreams each morning. The inner voice that greets us as we write strengthens our authenticity. That voice becomes a light, a fire, that calls to us and claims us as we dare to live out its truth.
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I am spiritually and financially abundant.
I provide heaven and earth for myself.
There’s an ancient narrative and a destructive misunderstanding that if we are going to be spiritual, then we have to renounce the material world. The body, however, is the soul’s chance to be here. So a healthy relationship to the material world is crucial and integral to reaching our spiritual potential.
Khadijah represents the power and importance of knowing we can provide for ourselves. This power gives us roots and confidence and allows us to create relationships from a place of interdependence rather than co-dependance. We can cultivate the capacity we have to create more and more freedom for ourselves. And we can make choices for our life based on truth, not just on survival.
There’s also a false idea about when true love will find us and how. Khadijah liberates us from fairy tales that we need to be saved, or supported, or provided for by our life partner. Khadijah provided for the prophet Muhammad. And her older age and significant status in the community made her more attractive, not less. She was a middle-aged businesswoman and single mom. She was ripe with resources and ripened with opportunities to love.
Living into our true power and purpose does not make us less eligible. Khadijah reminds us that there is not linear timetable that eliminates us from having the sun descend in our courtyard. She lets us remember that we are worthy of the abundance measured in gold and the abundance measured in the depth of our love.
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