One of my life's lessons is to do my best with what I have. I make sure I don't fall under the curse of thinking that when I have more money then I will entertain more, be more generous, or any of the other lies it's so easy to tell ourselves.
I remember when I learned this lesson. Here were the facts:
I lived in a tiny 600 sf studio apartment.
I had a love of entertaining lots of people.
My circumstance and my want were not quite in alignment. But I was learning to make the best with what I had. I knew if I couldn't use and be happy with what I had, more would not come to me. So instead of complaining about how small our apartment was, I decided to have a dinner party for 6. And you know what we did? We ate dinner on our laps in the living room/dining room/office/bedroom of that tiny studio. And we all had a great time even without the formal dining room, because I used what I had and did what I loved. Now I have a big beautiful backyard that we are able to do extravagant dinner parties and large events. And someday I will have an elaborate formal dining room, I can already picture it. And at the first formal dinner party in my beautiful big dining room, I am going to smile as I remind myself this is the reward of using what I had when I didn't have more than a lap.
Life is a process of continuing to live to your greatest capacity. When you fill that capacity, more will be added. Too many people expect to be given a bigger capacity before they fill their present place.
Now at a bigger house, I continue to max it out to it's greatest capacity. We went to a family christening on Thanksgiving for Marc's extended family. As a true entertainer, I decided to invite all 25 of them over for Thanksgiving dinner a few hours later. Did you know it's actually quite difficult to find two un-frozen turkeys on Thanksgiving day? But we found 'em and 5 hours later I had dinner ready for 25 people (obviously, Marc helped. A. LOT). Half of us had to eat in the garage, and I had to put the food on a table outside (don't worry it was November in LA so it's not like there was snow on the ground). But nobody can say I'm not workin' what I got!
If you love it, you will do it. If it's part of who you are, you will do it. If it's who you want to be, just start being it.
I just feel God smiling down on me and saying, "alrighty, I will get you a bigger space, I can see you would make great use of it." To which I respond, "Yes, and just so you know if there was a big beautiful pool I would use that, too. ;)"
Hey. You have not because you ask not.
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