The Abundance Cafe

Today wasn’t full of conscious abundance activities as we are two days away from our holiday. There is a lot of admin when it comes to planning an international holiday on our own. Despite a very late night, we still have some planning to do.

Something that I thoroughly enjoyed today was my haircut. Yes, I said it. I love getting my hair did. The significant part is we don’t have extra money for a haircut right now, but I had forgotten that a jewellery store is trying to sell some of my pocket watches for me. When I went to check, they had money for me. Enough money for a haircut. No matter what, no matter how, we are always provided for if you are willing to receive.

We came to a realisation yesterday that we have been guided toward before, but it didn’t click. So all the wealthiest and most successful people in the world always advise you to “be of service” but my pride has always jumped in the way saying “I am not a servant!” Ridiculous really. So we realised that we are going about this all wrong. We have been saying, “let’s get wealthy and then we’ll help people!” but it’s actually the other way around. You have to do a service to humanity in order to gain financial success.

Again this comes across as money chasing, but it really is not. After we ran into the Mozambican from yesterday I also realised that I would easily give up my Bentley to help 5000 of those guys, or my mansion for 500 000 of those guys. This all sounds good and well in theory, but I am very serious. In a heartbeat I would give that up to help people. However, I don’t believe it is necessary, abundance is limitless so I can help countless people and STILL get my Bentley and that massive house, without sacrificing anything.

We had a slow start today, but boy when we hit the ground we hit it running. We went for breakfast at one of our usual spots, a lovely little café on a street corner. We hadn’t been there long before a homeless guy came to get our attention. See, in South Africa beggars are a very common sight and you cannot go anywhere without being begged from at least twice. So naturally one would become desensitised to their plight. They are also very often scammers taking advantage of people’s kindness or they are very aggressive and rude (in Cape Town at least.)

So I immediately adopted my usual “I’m not listening face”, but Will didn’t. He decided to hear the guy out. So as it turned out, the guy didn’t want money - he just wanted something to eat. Quite unusually, Will offered to buy him something to eat. He sat at the edge of the restaurant obviously fearing being chased away as he waited for his meal. Eventually I made eye contact with him and my immediate response was to ask him about himself. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not a heartless person and someone with a good heart and sincere need will get help from me, but after the months of harassment from vagrants here in Cape Town (including rocks thrown through our fifth storey window for not complying to a request for a cigarette) I have pretty much shut off from them.

Turns out this guy was from Maputo, he was a qualified teacher whose contract had come to an end an there was no more work for him. He is married with 3 kids and is also taking care of his mother. So he got a lift to South Africa with nothing but hope. He landed up in Cape Town when really should have gone to Johannesburg, but since it had been two days since his last meal and he had no more money left, he was unable to get there. At this point we really aren’t able to fork out another R700, we’re already going to Europe with just about nothing. I know, this all sounds quite ridiculous. “I don’t have money to help you, because all my money has gone into a fabulous holiday for myself.” Trust me though, we don’t have money falling from the sky yet and this holiday was a lot trickier to pull off than we’ve made it seem.

So we gave him his meal and he went on his way. I prayed deeply that the man would find a helping hand very soon. After breakfast we went to check on our row in the community farm. We were furious! When we arrived we saw that they had completely replanted our professionally landscaped row into normal, straight rows of crops. Half the plants had been removed and planted heaven knows where. Immediately I emailed the woman (the one who had seen the row when it was almost finished and loved it) and told her that were very angry and insulted and that we would not be supporting their project anymore.

The worst part for me in the whole mess was that we had spent R700 on the plants that these people took for granted, never mind our time, and this is what it would have cost to send the Mozambican guy to Johannesburg, someone who would have appreciated it beyond the power of words. Man, I was angry. The lesson here is to do more research on projects we intend to support in future. Also, I promise to hear out as many vagrants as I can manage, then I will decide what to do.

Another interesting thing that happened today was something we discovered about Will’s friend. They met while at university a few years ago, and they became good friends. They didn’t see each other too often outside of class as they lived quite far apart in Johannesburg. Turns out she used to run a project where they would make meals for people in need every Saturday. They would then go out and deliver these food packages to the people. All the food would be donated and they would then cook it and deliver it. What a beautiful project! So we discussed starting a project like that here in CT. Sure, there are soup kitchens and it’s not an original idea, but there are always hungry people and turns out it’s not so difficult to achieve.

I promised I would tell you about the book today, so here it is! I read “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” by Robin Sharma. Yes I know it’s an old book and I’ve been meaning to read it for ages, but everything comes when it is needed. Now the book itself is quite annoyingly written for people who have some level of understanding of the universe or who are spiritually awakened even to the slightest degree. It’s written for people who haven’t heard any of this before. However, I do recommend that you “bare-with”, what is actually being said is very valuable despite how it is said. It’s a profound guide on how to improve your own life and lift yourself to a constant higher vibration.

There are many steps that need to be completed daily and it will take about an hour a day at least, split between morning and evening. I need to get everything in order to attempt the 1 month challenge, and my plan was to start tomorrow, but I am going to wait. We are leaving for Johannesburg in 3 days and we won’t be back until the 8th of August, there is so much pressure on me already, that I am going to give myself some breathing space. When we get back, I vow to go into it head on. I will do some of the practices in between from now on, but not everything in one go.

We started our day at the bank, they’ve suspended Will’s account again without any explanation. Our attempt to solve the problem was unsuccessful as the woman who is in charge of that specific division is only in on weekdays, meanwhile he has no access to his money. At least we have a credit card, but it’s less than ideal to use it for groceries. We did however pick up two R100 notes on a chair as we left the bank, and no, we didn’t keep it. We gave it in a woman working at the bank, she took it to the teller who had been helping the lady who had left it behind, and they would contact her. There’s a difference between receiving abundance and stealing …

The rest of the day was filled with an abundance of friendship. We had a farewell for a friend who is leaving for Europe and afterwards we ran into friends when we went to get dinner. We are grateful for the old friends we are able to spend time with and for the new ones we have made.

Our day was a great one! We had a fantastic time planting the seedlings and it turned out great. We had a small hurdle when we arrived: they had cleared the bed that we would be using to plant our seedlings into, but they had not cleared it completely. There were some random plants in the way and the lavender hedge along the side had not been trimmed at all, it left us with very little room to work with and basically ruined our chances of creating a congruent pattern.

As arranged, we met with the volunteers from the community farm and the meeting went very well. They gave us a great row in the farm to make use of and there were some clear requests for specific vegetables that they need. Another request was that we do something creative for them as the rest of the rows are pretty straight forward. Tomorrow we will go seedling shopping.

Today has been very busy. We had to take Will’s car in for step one of having the key replaced. First the key needs to be deactivated and only then can they order the new key, so we have to go after a few days again. My point is, while we sat there waiting, we listed our “daily twenty”. Again I will say, it is such a beautiful exercise. Do it.

We arranged for tomorrow to meet with the community farm where we will be donating a row of vegetables and other consumable plants. We are very eager to see them tomorrow and get the project going before we leave for Europe. It’s not a large financial donation, but it will benefit many people and the volunteers of the farm are very grateful.

Finally, we got to our gratitude lists. The idea is to list 100 things you are grateful for and in this process you activate the “gratitude vibration”. It works. When you send out a gratitude vibration you attract more things to be grateful for. Many people believe this is how it works and I can see how. After doing the list our focus shifted from “yeah, it’s nice, but…” to “yes, it is nice or wonderful or amazing etc.”

We could have gone on and on actually, there are thousands of things to be grateful for (even if we don’t live the fabulous lives we have envisaged for ourselves yet). Everyone has many things to be grateful for! From the weather outside to the water in your taps, from the lack (or excess) of hair on your toes to the laughter you get from a dopey dog. SO many things that we overlook. We get so stuck in a desire for perfection that we lose track of what perfection really is. Perfection is here and now in every single moment.

We will be doing shorter lists of 20 things to be grateful for every day from now on. We may not write it down, but may say it out loud while driving to the store or while walking on the beach or while in the shower. Where or how doesn’t matter and there is no excuse to not do it. We will try to make it part of our morning routine in order to set the tone of the day ahead. When we face challenges we will list more!

How sensitive is the universe to wording? We have been quite careful with how we word our intentions, and we are becoming better and better at it, but how crucial is it really? Of course if you say “I don’t want to be broke,” then I can see how that will continue to keep you broke as you are focusing on being broke. In our case we are focusing on the positive at all times, we are very very clear on what it is we are manifesting and we choose our words carefully – so how important is wording?

Is there really a difference between “I want to own a Mercedes,” and “I intend to own a Mercedes”? The feeling remains exactly the same on a conscious level, so in that way I see no difference. I realise that different words have different meanings, however slight they may be, but is that even something the universe listens to? Does the universe only sense your intentions or does it have ears as well?

I have a thought I would like to share with you all. Opinions on this matter will vary greatly and they already do. So my friend said to me yesterday that “the universe will give you what you need before it gives you what you want”, and I totally agree, but there is a school of thought that says “when you have what you need, you will want less”. Fair enough, I can see how that works, but should we limit ourselves to “needs” only? What about the “wants”?

I need a car, yes, but I don’t “need” a Rolls Royce. I want one. Now as a spiritual person should I not be “wanting” anything? I’m not Buddha and I will never live a life free of desire – I will always follow my desires because they bring me joy. However (or whoever) we were created, we landed up with the ability to experience joy and pleasure, and if you can find joy and pleasure in a very simple lifestyle, then go for it, but I know I can’t.

Our day was good! We didn’t get up to too much, but we had a friend come over for lunch. This friend of ours has been a part of my life for 8 years now and he is also someone who believes in manifestation. He told us how he is inspired by our effort and journey and how we are laying ourselves bare as we go through the process. Our story has motivated him to restart his efforts of manifestation.

We have learned two things from the afternoon with our friend: firstly we realised that we certainly need to spend more time talking to others about the work we are doing. The best way to learn is to teach. The second thing was; inspiring people is easy when you are coming from the heart. When you share sincerely and allow yourself to be vulnerable, people listen.

We had another relaxing day, but we were somewhat more proactive. We did more exercises and affirmations, realising that we are very much on the same page once again - that our wealth is coming from our hearts. This confirmation puts us both at ease as it is a very common fear that people without wealth have, and that fear is that money will change them for the worse, that it will corrupt their minds and hearts. We seem to be coming from the right place, so we are not afraid that money will corrupt us.

We had a beautifully positive day, filled with affirmation and Offer to Purchase signing. Nothing happened that we can complain about. We are also now house sitting an incredible home in Llandudno, so we’re happy. However, last night was a lottery draw of R50 Million and we didn’t win. Normally this doesn’t bother us too much as we can try again, but someone won it last night and it wasn’t us. The person with the jackpot ticket won R51 255 000, which was our dream win.

We are sincerely happy for the winner and we wish them only the best with their new life, but we are disappointed, really disappointed this time. All of this raises an important aspect of our journey though. We are very concerned about the “how”! Even though we keep reminding ourselves that “how is not my problem”, we have been so conditioned as the human race to have a plan, to “know how”, that when things don’t work out the way we wanted we are severely disappointed. How arrogant and foolish really, to believe we know better than the universe. This is also telling the universe that you do not believe that your very best interests are constantly at heart. How we fix this thought pattern is something I cannot tell you right now, but are determined to find out.

Here’s the magic though: how really doesn’t matter. We are still learning how to release the need for “how”, but imagine how beautiful life will be when living in pure faith and not suffering from “how” related stress and disappointments. If we are being taught right now to let go of “how” then it is a hard lesson and one that is slowly but surely making headway. After all, the only “how” we need to concern ourselves with is how limitless the abundance of the universe is!