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| image: Saymom Leao on Unsplash |
Last Friday, we talked about a fun weekend challenge: building a "No-Store Snack Tray" entirely out of the random odds, ends, and near-empty jars rolling around in a refrigerator a week after grocery day. When I pulled those jars and containers out to the counter to assess, at first look it didn't seem like much. It would have been incredibly easy to slide on over to Walmart to pick up a few things. Instead, I decided to just work with what I had. My family loved what I created. And it gave me great satisfaction to turn those bits into a snack-able feast.
That little kitchen experiment reminded me of a deeper truth that sits at the very heart of a mindful, frugal lifestyle: true abundance isn’t about how much you accumulate; it’s about your ability to create something beautiful out of what looks like little or nothing at all.
Creating abundance out of little means different things to different people. In my case, it was putting together all of those tidbits in new ways to create a platter of goodies. But perhaps to you creating abundance looks more like refashioning a couple of tops that no longer suit your style into several lovely new pieces for your wardrobe. Or perhaps it's the act of rearranging the furniture in your living room to create a fantastic Friday movie night venue right there in your very own home. Or perhaps it's scraping the peeling finish off of an abandoned desk found by the roadside and painting a pretty floral motif around the edges, so your daughter can have a piece of just-for-her furniture for her room. I know a woman who unravels hand-me-down sweaters and re-knits the yarn into colorful scarves and hats to put on a table at the downtown soup kitchen in late fall each year. She unravels and knits all spring, summer, and early fall. By the time she is done, she has filled several trash bags with a wealth of warm clothing pieces for folks who are going through a tough period.
Creating abundance doesn't rely on purchasing more and more. It is simply saying, "what can I make from what I have right now, right here?" It's the now and the here that we have after all. And it's not just about that $20 savings on a Friday afternoon, although that is appreciated too. It is an act of creative stewardship -- we are no longer passive consumers, but active creators who know in their gut that there is potential in what seems like little. There's real power in that.
My grandmother was the supreme magician at turning scraps into something beautiful. Story after story from my mother about her childhood revealed my grandmother's talent. One February 13 when my mother was in the third grade, as my grandmother was tucking my mother into bed, my mother blurted out that she needed 22 Valentine cards for the next morning. This was long before the advent of late-night or all night markets. My grandmother stayed up half the night cutting fanciful shapes out of the pages of a wallpaper sample book followed by signing my mother's name to all of them. In the morning, my mother took these beautiful Valentine cards to school and gave them to all of her classmates. Like many of our grandmothers, mine was a young bride when the Great Depression hit. My grandmother learned the art of looking at what she had and turning it into something special. Hard times created some very resourceful people. Easy times tend to dampens creativity.
I still haven't gone grocery shopping, and we're heading toward 2 weeks since my last shop. You know what? I think I'm having too much fun cooking with just what we have on hand.
Your Turn: I would love to carry this philosophy into our holiday week conversation! Have you ever had a moment in your kitchen, your garden, or your home where you managed to create a feeling of total abundance out of absolutely 'nothing'? What did you make, and how did it feel to pull it off?
