The Architecture of All Abundance by Lenedra J. Carroll

This book came to me, as most important books do, through the hands of a friend. In this case it came from a Wild Soul Workshop participant. She shares my dream for a retreat center and felt that this book would help make it a reality.

The author, Lenedra Carroll, is the mother and manager of Jewel a successful singer and songwriter. Lenedra’s story begins in frontier Alaska where she grew up and follows her journey through hard times and periods of illumination.

As I write this I am halfway through the book, and already I have found it to be increasing the power of my intentions. Spending time with Lenedra through this book has made saying, ‘I can’t…” nearly impossible. It has reminded me that for every minute of doing there should be an equal amount of dreaming.

There are times, as with any book of this genre, where I feel my critic rise up and judge it as too “new-agey.”  And then I relax and remember that I have no idea what it possible or impossible and I ask myself, “What harm is there in believing that everything she says is true?” None.

This is from the first page before the first chapter:

What is a deeply satisfying human life, and how do we design one? How do we share that information with each other? What are we meant to do here together, and what are we truly capable of in the realm of human excellence?

The answers to these questions are not mysteries beyond our reach. Fulfillment of the promise of our soul’s nature is possible. It is why we are here. It is our birthright. The answers are found in the inner frontiers of being. This is my journey into those frontiers.

Chapter 7  Lilies of the Field

One of the hardest messages for me to get past is one from my culture best expressed in words from my ex-husband when I told him some of the difficulties I was having with starting Soul Flares. He said something like,  “"Life is not easy Ann. Success is the result of very hard work. Dreamers don't make it."” To some, his words may sound harsh but they came from true concern and a desire for me to be happy. He suggested I become a free-lance writer instead.  Lenedra writes about a similar experience:

Why did everyone work frantically and worry so much about it? When I tried to point it out to people they looked at me as if I was out of my mind. They explained to me that I didn't understand the adult world; it wasn't like that, they said—-- you had to work to get ahead. It was important; it was a serious and fearful business. Eventually I came to fear it was true.

So, I have set off on an exploration, similar to the one Lenedra went on when she sold all her possessions and got on a plane out of Alaska. She wanted to understand and surrender to the natural laws that govern prosperity within our world of being.” This dosen't mean I want to just sit and wait for prosperity. It means I want to explore the relationships between effort and intention, self-love and creativity, doing vs being. I want to remove the heavy lines between work and play, sourcing it from a fullness in me instead of some sense of deficit. (never enough time, never enough good help etc)

In my last work my business parnter and I were always tired. Always working beyond our limits. We produced beautiful work, but it was not sustainable. –After 5 years we both had a break down. After 6 years we broke up. While I know many hours and focus are required to do a work of beauty, I do not believe it has to be “"hard" work” that exhausts us.  I think when work feels exhausting we need to look at what aspect of our truth we are not honoring. Of course there will be exhausting days of working out computer problems, etc, but the balance of the days should be, can be, positive and life-giving.

With Soul Flares I commit to creating a work that is life-giving to me and to the people whom it serves.


Chapter Eight Money, Money, Money

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way that it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you love, in order to have what you want.
- Margaret Young

There is a section in this chapter called -- Our Monetary Belief System”

There are many ideas we have accepted about money, value, lack, worth, and work. These ideas form a belief system that creates the principles that we operate by regarding money. They vastly influence our relationships and dreams. As an exercise, I wrote down many of my personal beliefs as well as our cultural views about money and reviewed them alongside my experiences of money. Upon closer examination, I saw how commingled, confused, and conflicting this mix was.

And then she lists over 30 of these ideas. Here are a few:

• I have to work hard for money and if I don't put forth lots of effort I will be poor.
• People respect me more if I have money. I respect people more if they have money./li>
• I earned it the hard way, everyone else should too.
• It is not spiritual to have money; it's better to give than to receive.
• It is wrong or weak to receive assistance from others.
• I can't trust people who ask for money.
• I should help people who are in need.
• People I give money to probably misuse it.
• Everybody should just get a job!
• When I have enough I will help others.
• I can't be happy without money

Wow. What a great exercise! No wonder couples have so many disagreements over money. It is such a loaded issue!

Lenedra goes on after her list:

It fascinated me to also go through my list substituting the word “money” with power,”of love.” Then for fun I tried the words time” and “success.” These five concepts – -- money, power, love, time, and success – are what we most commonly associate with wealth. As I looked closely to the underlying beliefs, I discovered many useless ideas, even lies. I began to question hem all. What is the belief? Who says so? Does is serve me to operate from that belief? Who will be upset if I don't? Why do I care? What did I believe about it as a child? (We often knew better then.) To change our relationship to prosperity, we must first see what our current relationship to it is.
Stay tuned for more from this book.