When I first read John Muir's beautiful words about the earth's abundance, I felt a deep sense of peace settle over my wings. It is so easy to get caught up in the feeling of scarcity, that nagging worry that there is never enough time, enough money, or enough success to go around. But Muir reminds us of a much larger, more magnificent truth. He suggests that the universe isn't a finite pie with shrinking slices, but an overflowing garden where the roots are deep and the blossoms are endless. There is a fundamental sufficiency in nature that we often forget when we are staring at our tiny screens or worrying about our to-do lists.

I see this play out in our everyday lives all the time. We live in a culture that constantly tells us we need more to be happy, more to be safe, or more to be worthy. This creates a frantic energy, a constant reaching for something just out of grasp. However, if we look closely at the world around us, we see that nature operates on a different principle. A single forest provides oxygen, shelter, and food for countless creatures, and it does so while producing a breathtaking display of colors and life that feels almost like a surplus. The beauty of a sunset doesn't take away from the beauty of a sunrise; they both exist in their full, glorious entirety.

I remember a Tuesday a few weeks ago when I was feeling particularly overwhelmed. My nest felt cluttered, my tasks were piling up, and I felt like I was running on empty. I decided to take a tiny walk through the local park, just to breathe. I sat by a small pond and watched a family of ducks paddling through the reeds. There was plenty of water for all of them, plenty of greenery for nesting, and the sunlight dancing on the surface was so lovely it felt like a gift specifically for me. In that moment, the scarcity mindset vanished. I realized that while my tasks might be many, my capacity to find peace and beauty is even greater.

We can all learn to shift our gaze from what is missing to what is present. When we acknowledge the abundance that already surrounds us, our perspective changes from survival to appreciation. It allows us to breathe more deeply and act with more generosity toward others. Today, I want to encourage you to step outside, even if just for a moment, and look for the 'extra' beauty in your surroundings. Find one thing that feels like a surplus, a little bit of grace that nature has provided just for you, and let it remind you that you already have enough.