Box of Apples

Yesterday was an abundant day. Walking to the bank to deposit a check (abundance!) I saw this box full of packaged, sliced apples sitting in front of the church (abundance!) at 12th and Morrison in downtown Portland.

The box, I’m certain, was meant for one of the many homeless and hungry people who live on those downtown streets.  Even so, I felt abundant just being witness to this open gift sitting, waiting for someone to claim it. It reminded me of a similar gift, about this time last year, of a wool coat hanging on a parking meter with the tag still attached.

Feeling wealth in the air after seeing this plethora of food and depositing my check, I walked back to the office with a little more lift in my step.  And lo and behold, found two pennies on the street (abundance!).

Yes, a pretty fine day, indeed.

30 cents and a smile - photo by Michele M. Larsen

So, just as I was noticing that seeing abundance every day is more challenging to me than seeing joy every day, I hit paydirt.  Literally.

My friend Kristin and I were walking from my office to get bagels as a Friday morning treat. A couple blocks from our destination I saw what looked like a sea of pennies on the ground. Ecstatic at this bounty I jumped and screeched and oozed excitement. There were 22 pennies. Amazing.

On the walk back from the bagel shop I saw another bunch of pennies – 8 of them – just laying on the sidewalk. More oozing and screeching.

For blocks we talked about how fantastic this was. Normally you might find one penny on the ground. But here I found two sets of MULTIPLE pennies in one outing. Almost unbelievable! I mean, what are the chances???

This called for photo documentation. What you see here is all 30 pennies I found in the shape of a smiley face; which can only allude to the joy and excitement I felt in finding such a bounty.

But wait!  There’s more! Upon getting back to the office there was a bagel in my chair! My friend and co-worker, Denise, had been to the bagel shop just before us and picked one up for me.

“Abundance abounds!” I exclaimed, arms raised in the air as if to catch more of it.

Seeing as this was such a lucky, abundant day I, of course, bought a few lottery tickets.

This morning I checked the paper and I’m not a lottery winner — today. And that’s not really the point. The point is for a good hour Friday morning I FELT very abundant. And that, my dear friends, is a very, very good feeling.

Find a penny, pick it up

There has been some discussion about doing away with the penny. It’s just not worth enough to justify it’s existence, some say. These people, whomever “they” are, obviously don’t know the joy of finding a penny on the street.

I love to find pennies on the street.  As soon as I see one I quickly pick it up and almost uncontrollably out of my mouth comes “find a penny, pick it up, the rest of the day you’ll have good luck!”

Finding any kind of money, even pennies, gives me a momentary feeling of wealth and abundance.  That’s a feeling I’d like to create a lot more of in my life; which is why I’ve started this blog.

Beginning here and now I will look for, acknowledge and celebrate the abundance in my life every day.  Penny by penny.

If what we focus on expands, it won’t take too long for all those pennies to turn into dollars. Care to follow this blog for a year and find out?  Better yet, join me.

Next time you find a penny, pick it up.