STELLA MCCARTNEY: A PERSPECTiVE ON ABUNDANCE VS. LACK

"Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. 

It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend.
When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives, 
but are grateful for the abundance that's present--
love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure 
--the wasteland of illusion falls away, and we experience heaven on earth" 

- Sarah Ban Breathnach via Simply Seductive

Photo: Young Stella McCartney photographed by her late mother, Linda McCartney via Pinterest

These kind of quotes can sometimes be frustratingly annoying. Aside from being rather cliche, these rose-colored axioms seem condescending when you're going through a hard time, and can add guilt to the hurt you're already experiencing. But once in a while, a statement like this will click, and open up a whole new perspective. I like this one by Sarah Ban Breathnach because it acknowledges that everything is not perfect, yet not everything is terrible, and that's okay: "both abundance and lack exist simultaneously". For example, we could look at the above photograph of Stella McCartney: the daughter of one of the most influential musicians of all time and designer of one of the coveted fashion houses of all time, Stella seems to have lived in abundance her entire life. The image shows the young beauty lounging in a garden, the subject of her photographer mother's critically acclaimed lens. But the mother who lovingly captured her here has since passed away. Close to her since birth, Stella has publicly expressed her deep grief at the loss of her mother. Losing one's parent is clearly a profound sense of lack that can never be replenished, not even by abundant fame or success. Anyone who still has their mother, especially if they enjoy a loving relationship with her, can in a way be considered more abundantly blessed than Stella McCartney. 

This is not all to say that Stella's abundant blessings mean nothing, or that anyone else's struggles and sense of lack are invalid. It is simply to use someone we admire to illustrate the many ways of looking at what we have, and ultimately, how to find that path to "heaven on earth". What do you think?