How much is Enough?

As I sit by the window looking out at the teaming rain, my thoughts have turned to the idea of “enough”.

You see, today I am thrilled that it is raining hard for we have been without Enough rain the last few weeks. So little, in fact, that we have not had to mow our lawn in almost 3 weeks! That is unheard of during summer in NC. My beautiful fig tree is suffering and plants are wilting from thirst all around me. So, with this rain, I am imagining the earth’s rejoicing and drinking it in, just as I am!

However, if it were to keep raining like this for a few days, not only would it be too much for me, but also too much for the ground, grass and plants. How much is Enough rain? That may be able to be defined in some scientific way, determining how much rain plants, grass and trees need to be healthy and grow before drowning. When it comes to our own lives, however, we often struggle to define Enough.

How much is Enough money?

How much is Enough down time?

How much is Enough work?

How much is good Enough?

What happens when we can’t answer these questions?

When we are not able to define Enough, we often lose sight of how much we DO have and instead focus our attention on what we have NOT done yet, how much we are MISSING, or how far away we BELIEVE we are toward our goals.

Enough is a measure. It can be a measure of progress, of effort, of the outcomes we have achieved. We can then strive to do, be or have more than enough AND because we know how much Enough is, we can also allow ourselves to bask in the bounty we have for a minute, a month or a lifetime.