Dear Q,

We live in a consumer-driven world that will tell you that you need to want whatever you don’t have – from cars, to razors, to body parts.  This constant wanting prevents you from appreciating what you have and recognizing the abundance that surrounds you.  We are conditioned to complain – about the weather, about the economy, about work, about school, about other people.  In the summer, the weather is too hot.  In the winter, it’s too cold. Resist.

Abundance is a matter of perception.  Appreciate what you have.  When it rains, lift your face to the sky and be grateful that you are not living in drought.  Water is life and it is falling from the sky.  For free!  If you look at rain as an inconvenience, that is what it will become.  Concentrate on what you have and more will come to you.  Once you start to recognize the abundance around you, you will see just how much you have to be grateful for.

You are surrounded by abundance – of love, of nature, of laughter, of music, of art, of life… be grateful for it.

Love always,

Mom