A few years ago I heard this story. It was told by a guest on a talk show. It may have been either Wayne Dyer or someone like him who was very kind and sweet in telling the story. The man told the story of one of his travel experiences.
He was in a new city and went to a little shop. Inside, he enjoyed a fantastic cookie. He enjoyed the cookie so much he bought a package to bring home to his family. The rest of his trip, he looked forward to sharing the cookies with them and seeing them enjoy the cookies, too.
He got home and they opened the cookies and the family loved them. He went to work the next day. On his way home he anticipated having one of those fantastic cookies. When he got home the cookies were all gone. They had been eaten by the kids and their friends when they got home from school.
The man was disappointed. He called the shop and they shipped the packages of cookies, so he got a couple of packages shipped. They arrived while he was away on a trip. By the time he got home the cookies were all gone again.
This time when he called the shop, he had them ship an entire case of cookies. He was not going to go without these cookies again. He wanted to have some when he wanted them!
The case arrived. And the case sat un-opened. No one ate them. The fantastic cookies sat and sat. They ended up throwing the case out when the cookies went bad.
This story has changed meaning for me over the years. There are many great insights in to how people behave when our “survival instinct” kicks in and we don’t even know it; the instinct that says, “Food necessary for existence” which with a full cupboard and a store on every corner isn’t really necessary.
That instinct drives a focus on what his lack: the fantastic cookie. When he “had” them, he lost interest in the abundance in his cupboard. He focused on something else he lack and moved on.
It is interesting when I look at my own “house” and ask “Where do I focus?”
Do I look at how much I don’t have in the bank? Or do I focus on what I have and where my intention is taking me?
Hawaiian style, my personal practice is to focus on what is. The list of what I don’t have can be very long. I don’t have tickets for my family to Disneyland. I don’t have a Porsche in the driveway (which is fine as I am six feet, five inches tall, so I probably won’t fit!). I don’t have size 9 feet, which also good since I am six foot, five inches tall and small feet might make me fall over more often.
So what. Who cares what I don’t have? It would be quite exhausting to keep that list up to date.
Now focusing on what I DO have is much more fun. And in the Hawaiian tradition it is how the language and culture expressed life. “E ho’oano ‘ia” Experience the radiant awe of this moment.
Life is spoken as an expression of life. If you say it, then it is commanded in to being. It would be like saying, “And so it is!” after everything you say.
It is the way young children speak about the world. It is like the story of the first grade teacher who gives her class the assignment to color anything that inspires them. As she goes around the room, she sees rainbows, families, animals and other things. She gets to one little girl who is very seriously coloring. She can’t tell what it is she is coloring so she asks, “And what are you coloring today that inspires you?” The little girl continues coloring and says, “I’m coloring God ‘cause he inspires me.” The teacher is a little flustered and not sure how to respond and says, “Well that’s great. But you can’t color that. No one knows what God looks like.” Still coloring the girl replies, “They will when I’m done.”
If we can imagine it, it can be. If we dream it, it is. Let the focus be on what you have and are and all the other noise fades away. And so it is.
