Abundantly Less

“It’s not the daily increase. But the decrease.  Hack away at the unessential.” – Bruce Lee

Abundantly Less

“We’ve taken four loads to “Goodwill” over the past couple of days!” Kilee Johnson said as she walked back into her house, directly upon her return home.

She was telling me of how she and her husband, Garrison, decided to use a couple of days, during their Christmas-time vacation, to share their abundance with others.

“We thought about selling our things on-line, but we decided we’d rather give our surplus to others in our community.” She explained as we talked just inside the door, where she had entered, while continuing to share her philosophy. Of all she told me, perhaps most impressive, was her description of careful, loving preparation.

“I carefully cleaned the blinds, placed all of the hardware in small bags, and attached each bag to its corresponding blind to make sure the new owners have everything they need.”

Her attention to attaching love as a part of her sharing is striking. Such giving is clearly focused on providing increase to others as part of a personalized process of increase through decrease. A principle akin to the process of becoming a “master” of martial arts.  A process Bruce Lee understood very well.

Imaginatively, Bruce Lee described his own life-long pursuit of, counterintuitive increase through decrease in this way, “It’s not the daily increase. But the decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”  

As his admirers know, focusing on the pursuit of perfection in this way allowed Bruce Lee to master a quality of skill beyond the imagination of most.  In other words, the more of the unessential he removed, the more powerful and effective he became.

Kilee and Garrison have shown that this same principle can be effectively applied by each one of us. The more of our abundance we lovingly share with those around us, the more our love and the love of others will grow. And, the more we freely give of our surplus, in the way of love, the whole of our community will become greater than we can imagine.

“We’ve taken four loads to “Goodwill” over the past couple of days!” Kilee Johnson said as she walked back into her house, directly upon her return home.

She was telling me of how she and her husband, Garrison, decided to use a couple of days, during their Christmas-time vacation, to share their abundance with others.

By doing so, they’ve shown you and me how to embark on our own life-long pursuit of increase through decrease.  They’ve shown us how to live life more abundantly by giving our surplus to others.