Oregon is well known for it’s magnificent blueberries and I certainly take advantage of that during picking season – which is right now! Just the thought of those luscious berries with all of their sweet taste and antioxidant elixir brings me into pure pleasure. As the scarcity “default” is slowly ebbing it’s way from my thinking I notice even more acutely when it shows up, which is a good thing as I get to choose how I want to think and believe in the moment. Feeling pretty “on top of things” this past week I realized today that I was taken in by the culture’s “scarcity “and “fear of not enough” models without even realizing it. That scarcity template is really embedded in our culture, and I couldn’t have resonated with it if it wasn’t in me too!
This last week we have had some blazing hot days and I was hearing from here and there that it was taking a toll on the blueberries and that soon there wouldn’t be any to pick. Even as recent as yesterday a blueberry grower at the local farmer’s market said that this was the last of her berries and that there would be no more picking on her farm.
Well, I had put off picking every weekend as something else would come up and the month of August has certainly flown and with it the blueberry season. I noticed a slight panic inside that I wouldn’t get to pick any this year because “they would all be gone!” I needed to get out there right away! Many voices around me were saying the same sort of thing buying in to what had been passed down to them. No wonder we go running about in fear that we won’t have enough – or maybe none at all!
As I called my favorite picking place this morning my question was “are there any more to pick?”. I had bought in! The kind woman’s voice on the other side said that there were plenty to pick and that there would be for at least another couple of weeks, maybe even three. I hung up the phone and said to myself “abundance vs scarcity, now which one do I chose to live in? A good question and one well worth posing every single day.
Arriving at the blueberry farm this morning I waited to be assigned to my rows to pick. I was to pick between rows 26 and 27 about midway down as their professional pickers had stopped before the middle. I then found myself in blueberry heaven, literally! They were everywhere hanging in huge dark blue/purple clumps just waiting for me to gently remove them from their stems into my waiting buckets. The sun shone through big puffy clouds and the weather seemed just perfect for picking. Definitely a breathing space!
Someone in the next row said to their picking partner, “I bet we could come back down this row many times and still find more to pick”. It was after that comment that from time to time I would turn back and look at where I had picked just moments ago. It was almost as if I hadn’t even picked there as my eyes would light upon an abundance of berries that I either missed because I was not fully taking in all of the abundance right in front of me, choosing instead to look down the aisle for the next bunch…. or that better yet the blueberry fairies were placing berries back on the limbs faster than I could pick. I kind of like the idea of the fairies myself…but know that it was most definitely the former reason!
The belief in scarcity/lack communicates to our bodies and many things can and will happen over time. Our breath most certainly will become shallow and tight, our muscles contracted, as we grasp for more and more and more – never able to “fill up”. Taking a very large and deep breath I realized that when we believe, feel and think in abundant ways – that will be our experience. When we believe, feel and think in scarcity/lack modes – that will be our experience. The wise blueberry bush had taught me a deep lesson for the day – more is here NOW, in this very moment. What would our lives be like, the health of the planet and all life on it if we perceived everything as abundant with more than enough to have and share for the well being of all living things? Live in that question – and try on the blueberry metaphor.
Gaye Abbott
Blue handed and caught in joy…
Blueberry Breathing Space: For my favorite local Oregon blueberry picking go to Facebook and look up Radke Blueberries in Corvallis!
OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT: www.WildlyFreeWoman.net
BREATHING SPACES 