3 Lessons I Learned From My Friend, Who Stole From Me

08 Oct 3 Lessons I Learned From My Friend, Who Stole From Me

Have you ever had betrayal knock you on your rear?

Recently, it happened to me — and in my case, the thief was a friend. Here’s the short story:

A friend of seventeen years received a package meant for me… and she kept it.

I looked around for it for seven months – as it was something that meant quite a lot to me – and the whole time she pretended like she didn’t have it.

You know the odd thing? She’s someone who has more material belongings than I will ever have. So when I realized she’d taken it, I found myself in a state of disbelief. One question kept reverberating in my mind:

“How could she steal from me?”

Her actions both saddened and puzzled me. Why would someone do this to another person, let alone their friend? It was as if she had violated a simple, instinctive code between mutually loving humans. I started to fall into a state of despair, wondering how it is that humans find new ways to betray each other every day.

And then BAM — wise words from a wise woman was gifted to me.

It was like the universe started making it rain on me — a cracking, sudden downpour – and I had to scramble for a pen as three lessons came pouring into my whole being.

Because a friend told me why she stole…

“She has no abundance consciousness.”

For when you steal, you take. You take from others. You take from others so you can have more.

When you lack abundance consciousness, you feel like wealth is finite matter to be hoarded — for you to gain a higher stack, you diminish those around you.

And then I realized that abundance consciousness is less of an attitude — it’s a perspective on how you see yourself in this beautiful universe.

So I wondered aloud: “Do I have an abundance consciousness?” I do. Here is what it means to me. If abundance consciousness were a recipe, these would be the ingredients…

 Abundance Consciousness

RECEIVE.

Receiving is the first step of abundance consciousness. I mean truly receive the gift of abundance. Whether it’s a compliment, an acknowledgement, someone who wants to pay you your full worth… whatever it is, receive it, fully.

For example, if it’s a check for being paid to speak — don’t just put it in the bank by rote, or cash it in, immediately worrying about the next thing. Take the gift. Drink it in. This is the reality that you are receiving recognition for your worth. To truly receive it is to honor it. Don’t negotiate it, don’t downplay it, don’t push it away.

You’ve got to be present so you can FULLY take it in. When people give you something, part of their joy is watching it be received. There is power in fully accepting this into your being. Otherwise it kind of energetically bounces off you.

Take it in, take it in, take it in. Receive.

CARE.

This may be a familiar scenario: You get a compliment. You know what I mean. Someone locks eyes with you and offers you sincere praise. Maybe they are thanking you for going out of your way to do something that made their world better.

But, uh oh.

Like a meteorite dissolving through its rapid trajectory into the earth’s atmosphere, the compliment evaporates. It comes, you look at it, you may acknowledge it —more likely, you brush it off — then you put it away.

When you have received abundance, the next step is to pour care into it. And part of that is listening deeply. Truly listening.

Once you have received abundance — however small a gesture it may seem — care comes next. Like a gardener watering plants, you put in care for what has been received.

When you care, you lock eyes right back and, from your soul, you offer thanks. When you care, you allow the words to be received, to marinate into your bones so that they get captured there. There is a tattoo into you that they have spoken, and you have received that. It is yours to care for. Care is a form of gratitude.

And you remember. You remember. It’s not enough to just listen, to put forth care is to remember. What isn’t heard is easily forgotten. What matters lingers. It permeates you, like ink on skin. And so it lasts.

GIVE.

Giving is the return. What do I mean by that? Having received and cared for your abundance, you begin to give back — you reach out, pouring yourself outwards, as your gift radiates itself tenfold into the world.

Such is the multiplicity of abundance — it is always growing. Always expanding.

When you believe that to have more is to take away from others, you are stepping away from abundance consciousness. You are limiting yourself.

Giving is thanking from a true place. It’s magnetic. For example, if I get a check for speaking, it’s not just about receiving a payment and being thankful for it — it is just as important to let the gesture inspire my gift. In turn, on stage, I give my heart, I give my soul, I give my attention, and I pour myself into my speaking.

Give great love. Think well of each other. Taking this action will bring you internal peace and serve as a conduit towards finding the namasté (the God) in each of us.

Having something stolen from me triggered a familiar brand of melancholy – and for a time, I felt beat up. Going to that dark place was tough, but necessary.

Sometimes you’ve gotta go through the storm to earn the gift on the other side.

Pretending that something is not wrong – when it is – is to ignore the inner compass that gives our lives legitimacy and meaning and truth.

By passing through pain, I arrived at a place of healing. Of giving. Giving loving thought in my life gave me the space I needed to send loving prayers to my friend on her own path.

So GIVE. Give with your words. We can be so casual about what we say and how we say it. Practice being thoughtful with language.

Give with your thoughts. It is through giving that you change your perspective about yourself and the world around you. And you change the world.

Theft is ugly. Betrayal is ugly. But giving loving thought is to find the underlying truth beneath the ugliness – we transcend the petty desire to dismantle the humanity of another being. And so we grow.

And even though I am no longer friends with the woman who stole from me, I know in my heart there is no lacking.

Such is the gift of abundance consciousness.

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Now, I’d love to hear from you. Has anyone ever stolen from you — if so, how did you handle it?

Tell me: what area of abundance consciousness could use some attention in your life?

Let’s talk in the comments.

Wild Love,