An age of abundance - delight or overwhelm?

What do you do with abundance? 

In my brother’s garden, there’s an apple tree. When I visited, it was heaving with fruit in the autumn sun. All the apples seemed to have ripened at once – fruit was falling off the tree and hanging heavily on the branches. My daily raid for snacks was not making a dent. There were simply too many apples at once. 

This made me think of what abundance brings. There’s delight in it, sure. But for me, it was also overwhelming. There was simply too much and this made it stressful. It led me to some interesting reflections about where else in my life this sensation crops up. 

But there are other options than a sense of overwhelm in the face of abundance, of course. You might end up overconsuming and simply craving something else. And are the apples really wasted if they’re eaten by insects and animals? Is just leaving it fine, too?

If you have too much, you can share: put that box on the street offering people to help themselves, or take it to the foodbank. You can store some to use later, or create something else out of what you can’t immediately consume. 

Harvesting fruit in the autumn can be a blessing or a headache - but this isn’t about fruit: it’s not unusual for many of us to have too much of many things.

What do you feel about abundance in your life? What do you choose to do with it? 

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I'm a development and discovery coach, supporting people who want to find the right path for them and make conscious choices, in life and at work.