Thoughts On Abundance

I live in Nashville, a city that identifies as one of the few Mecca’s of artistic collaboration. Go to any local park in this region and you will discover scores of seemingly homeless-looking circa-1950’s Bob Dylan types, weaving each of their sticky guitar riff webs at the root of every live oak tree. While this behavior is generally utilized to attract attention from the opposite or same sex, the hearts of most musicians in Nashville are for excellence in their respective fields of art.

I love the drive and competition. This town pulsates with talent and original ambition, and I often find myself running outside of the lines, trying to keep up and feeling very un-athletic. (Literally and figuratively.) This rat race toward the most prophetic and influential art seems to eat away at confidence and challenge our abilities to support one another. Oftentimes, I fall into patterns of comparison and irrational judgment, simply because I feel there isn’t enough of that good juju to go around.

That’s when the lies come out to play.

You aren’t good enough. The bar is too high. He/she took this/that already and you missed out. Blahdy blahdy blegh megh.

How gross. Am I the only one? In the midst of our well-intentioned quest for beauty and truth, we get caught up in a false perception of how much ‘good stuff’ is out there and ripe for the picking. My favorite visual for this unrealistic striving was bestowed to me via blogger by one of my favorites, Glennon Melton. (http://momastery.com/blog/) She paints a picture detailing the comparative tendencies that we all have by using a typical bowling alley metaphor. The crux of the post questions the nonsensical-ness of even comparing yourself to anyone at all. You are in your own lane, and your lane has absolutely nothing to do with the strike or gutter-ball next door. WHY do we compare ourselves when the reality is that NO ONE has EVER had the same story? Your experience is different from any other human who has ever existed, so how could you possibly equate your measure of achievement to theirs?

These are the things I think about when the lies of failure creep into my bed at night. Living in a thriving city of artists should be only inspiring and never discouraging. This is because abundance is never limited, it flows out of every story that fills our days.