The Chipmunk, the ant, and the donkey

There is a collective thought during the recession that spurs all sorts of interesting behaviors.

Have you noticed?

Pay attention to your own life. As the media rattles off all the negative aspects about the economy, what beliefs are planting in your mind? Is it the suggestion of these beliefs that make us change, or is it that we revert to our basic tendencies?

When we hear such news, some people hoard things, while others keep moving with no sense of mindfulness of the moment, and others simply want to pull the blanket over their heads.

Instead of the natural flow of the moment coming and going and seeing the magic of it, we can fall into the "worry warp"... and from it all sorts of thoughts and borrowed beliefs riddle our minds.

All of us have our own ways to mask the white noise of worry.

We can be a chipmunk, a busy ant, or a donkey.

The chipmunk hoards-- gathering nuts, holding on to every precious commodity for the months ahead.


The busy ant works-works-works. The work numbs the mind from worry until it's time to rest and then the mind churns and churns until the next working moment.

And there's the donkey-- living in past worry, moving slowly, as if to say, "What's the point?"

Yet, within all of it is our lost youth; it isn't lost, it's just hidden by the suggestion which says, "Grow up."

But before that notion or suggestion sets in, the child sees the chipmunk, the ant, and the donkey as a world filled with things to play with.

The chipmunk could be the friend who brings nuts and all sorts of wonderful things to nibble on in any given moment.


The ant's work can turn into a dance... moving in all sorts of directions and finding larger objects to dance with.


And the donkey is a dream of a ride that might not happen too quickly, but the potential is marvelous.

It's in the magic of the moment.

My daughter is now an adult. She turned 18 in April and just graduated from high school. She recently said to me, "I don't want to grow up."

I got goosebumps. We talked about being "childlike" and how you can always choose to live in that magic.

When she was less than a year old and crawling, I bought a big bag of pretzels because she really liked them. She would crawl up to the bag and put her little hand out and open and close it like a lobster claw and say, "Pa-pa." Her baby word for pretzel. A year later, we were clearing out the house to move. I was going through all the cabinets and noticed one of the lower ones didn't have a safety lock on it. I opened it, and there was a huge mound of pretzels. Every time my daughter asked for a pretzel, she would crawl over to the one cabinet she could open and started her own pretzel mound for that rainy day.

She's a chipmunk. She can use her nature to bring all sorts of wonderful things for many.

I'm an ant. I can turn work into a dance inviting larger things and many others to join the dance.

My neighbor is a donkey. Within him is all sorts of potential.

Yet, all of us can be children... and when we choose childlike magic, our question is, "What's a recession?"


We see that there is abundance within our imagination in any given moment.
 
Until next time, may you live in lavish cheapskate liberation!
 
-Ardy Skinner
 
http://www.lavishcheapskate.com/