The Little Black Book

My existence is a small one, I have a hard cover, and my body consists of endless pages. I am a little black book that has a request of my writers in the front cover. That request is that they ink my blank spaces with their story of how abundance presents itself in their life, and what they do with it. I am passed from person to person, travelling the world to weave a collective tale of human greed and generosity. I can describe the human experience through feeling stories written on my pages. I want to know how different people think, and I want to change the lives of people I know will change the world for the better. The people who have a spirit as expansive as the universe. They are the ones who change the course of time. I have felt the tales of an elderly man who lived out his dreams and built a mountain village, a young woman who was a single parent living in New York city who used every cent to send her child to university. I have felt words written by people who used abundance to build castles, save charities, cure blindness, save the endangered Jaguar in Panama, build islands off the coast of Madagasca, recreate the intricate jewellery made by ancient Egypt Empires, build ships that shadow the titanic, start movements to fight for Indigenous People’s rights…

Out of all the stories, there is one that that remains in my memory more clearly than the rest. For its simplicity and true understanding of what abundance is. It is a tale of purity, of love, of humanities courage, and the innermost workings of the universe. It is a tale that makes you believe in miracles, that opens your heart to the possibility of everything changing. An extraordinary little boy who changed his stars and inspired me to have more faith in humanity. He understood abundance far beyond money. After feeling the passion his words spilled onto my pages, I would gladly gift him the power of abundance, knowing he could truly save the world from destruction. Allow me, dear reader, to take you on a journey of a small being named Anuj, born into a family nestled in the Himalayas. Allow me to share how the simplicity of an open heart allows abundance to flow in and all around you in multitudes of form…

The Himalayas reside at the top of the world. Those mountains are a place where the sun is close, and the air is thin. Giant shadows from rocks stretch as far as the eye can see, with deep valleys cascading into darkness. When the beating sun sets, the sky dances in reds and yellows turning the mountains into giant beings of blacks and purples, an intimidating presence. As the sun slips from the sky there is a chance to catch your breath before the moon comes out to play. Soon, one star sows itself, then another, and another. That void soon becomes saturated in twinkling lights. What an extraordinary playground for a child’s mind to discover and expand.

A boy named Anuj grew in a small village nestled in this place where the night stars are almost brighter than the dawning sun. The new day was whispered by bells on mountain goats and chanting prayers. Each week he would climb on rocky trails to the next village, trading goats’ milk for fresh fruits that grew abundantly higher up the mountain.

Now before we go any further, allow me to tell you about this boy’s kind and gentle soul. His eyes are kind, he allows himself to smile with joy as he witnesses the beauty of expression in those around him, he has a strong presence and is grounded in who he is, he gives loving energy not asking for anything in return, he understands the laws that govern the universe, he loves without attachment, and resides from a place of purity rather than lack. It is the essence of his pure soul that inspires my faith in humanity to create a world of harmony. To this little boy, mangos were the most precious things you could come by. They were so golden in his eyes, he almost thought them still alive. They were delicious on all his senses, explosive taste, sticky touch, sweet smell, bright sight. Most importantly they gave his body the energy of life. He thought ‘if everyone had a mango and felt as good as I do, the world would be a rich place’.

Our story begins with Anuj making this journey with his elder brother, whistling in the morning dew. Through pine forests with moss covered boulders to pave the way, along ledges that cascade into disappearing valleys, up vertical rocky paths, into cosy fire-lit tea houses and finally the next village. They knew this land like a memory from yesterday, following their footsteps in complete trust. As they walked along a small bridge to enter the town, a woman sat on a skateboard who had been handed the fate of crippled legs. Each week they would pass her downturned face and hear the clang of her tin on the ground, assuming she was asking for money.

Each time they would leave the village, Anuj would give a mango to this woman, with a simple nod, although he never received acknowledgment. He thought perhaps she did not notice, or perhaps she had lost her sight. He would wait behind a nearby tree to see if she would reach for the mango, but his brother would usher him along before she ever did. One day, Anuj walked past the woman, put a mango on the ground next to her feet as he always did, looked to her downturned face, and nodded. As he began to rise, he felt her hand reach for his. He looked down to her open and entrancing gaze. He fell into her stare and saw a depth of gratitude he had never experienced.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a Little Black Book and handed it to him. She said ‘this is my only possession and I give it to you. Each week you pass me by, chattering about how mangoes are the most abundant thing in your world, and then you give me one, every time, asking for nothing in return. Now I give my only possession to you because you have a story to tell. This Little Black Book passes from person to person, to hear different stories of how abundance has changed their lives. I have written my story, of how a little boy gifts me with the richest thing in his life because he believes everyone is deserving of such rich experience. It is time for you to write your story. Write down how you feel about mangoes, write down what the world would look like if every person was filled with as much joy as you are when you eat that fruit. Tell the book what abundance looks like for you. Your little mind has a view that could change the world.’

And so, he took the Little Black Book and wrote his story on my pages. For hours I felt how Anuj found abundance in fruits, in his families smiling faces, in his brother’s hug, in the towering mountains that nurtured his dreams. He found abundance in his imagination, a place that could take him anywhere. Of all the words written, he never used ‘money’. His pure child innocence found the true meaning of abundance, he understood the depths of a truly rich human experience. Slowly his tale turned into a visualisation of how he wanted to give every person a mango. He described the joy that would ignite people’s eyes as they received these golden fruits. Without realising, he was writing a metaphor for his future. Those words created a reality where he lived the most abundant life he could imagine, and he spent his time gifting people joy.

When Anuj was in his early twenties, his family was suddenly blessed with receiving a large sum of money from distant relatives. Ahis unexpected abundance changed everything. Suddenly, the world seemed bigger, possibilities stretched endlessly. The first thing Anuj did, was gift the old lady with crippled legs enough money to buy a home. Then he sat with the money, contemplating what he could do to inspire the world to find happiness. He wrote a book called ‘the true meaning of abundance’, had it published and sent across the world. People were entranced with his story of growing up in the Himalayas, and there was something about his childhood perception of abundance that changed people. The pure innocence, and the pure joy in simplicity triggered a remembering of people’s inner child. That book found its way into living rooms and schools, it was read at 20 thousand feet in the sky, on buses and trains, by young teenagers and 90-year-old men playing cards. It reached the broader human community, all because the simple love of mangoes is something everyone could relate to. You may be wondering how his family came across money so magically. Words have power, he wrote his story on my pages and put in motion the Law of Attraction, brining in more forms of abundance. He never asked for anything, but he believed he was rich beyond measure in all possible ways, which allowed money to flow into his life. In his hands, he brought joy and teaching to the world.

The difference with this little boy, is that he understood how he came into this enormous financial abundance, whereas the others believed it was me, the little black book, that brought them money out of thin air. Anuj was able to deepen his awareness and feel the power in his own words, to feel the power he has as a creator. He was able to step back and witness how the internal love and trust he felt in the Universe, was the true power that brought him financial abundance. It takes a special human to expand their consciousness enough to allow life to create freely through them. He was able to surrender to the experience of life, allowing things and experience to pass through him, letting them go understanding everything is in constant change. He understands the concept of money being a representation of energy. The more you are open within yourself, the more you feel overflowing in abundance in all ways, the more trust you have within yourself, the more the Universe will flow abundance through you. The more unattached you are, the more you can drop into gratitude for the gain and release of experience, the more it will manifest in physical ways, such as money. This concept can be applied to all areas of one’s life. The deeper you travel within yourself, the more you believe in your power as a creator of reality, the more you will trust life, the richer your experience will become.

As I leave you, I gift an anecdote from the little boy himself, now grown into a humble and grateful man. I hope it inspires you to fall in love with the richness in something as simple as a mango.

“Life is simple, love and abundance exist in the moments I breath in presence. It exists in the smiles on my families faces. It exists in the moment we see the first sprouting of our crops. It exists in the mangoes that grow like golden nuggets in the next village over. It exists in the golden sun slipping beneath the horizon, giving way to the first twinkling stars. It exists in the hearts of those that are poor in external material, but rich in spirit. Abundance exists in the moments you offer food to someone who needs it more than your rumbling belly. It exists in the honest gaze you give your friend when you tell them you love them. It exists in the hug from a stranger that offers open warmth in exchange for nothing. It exists in the flowing rivers that rage when the winter snow melts. It exists when you drop deeper into that place inside of you, that place that feels like a tranquil still lake, that place of peace. When you allow yourself to breath deeper, to feel the stillness, to witness the trees reflecting in that lake; you allow yourself to feel overflowing with life. Abundant in life.”