Carol Conger Miller - The Gift of Abundance

The most exciting birthday present I ever received was a bib that said, “I love Grandma.” 

It was my daughter Emily’s way of telling me that she was pregnant. 

Several months later, I flew to Colorado to await the baby's birth. After a few days, I received a text: "It's a girl." And then another: "Please pick up a pizza and bring it to the hospital." I raced to the hospital, pizza in hand, to meet her and to learn her name, Lily Abundance. 

I loved the name Lily, but Abundance took me by surprise. The next day, I asked Emily how they chose the name; she said that it was an intention to live with a spirit of abundance and generosity rather than with a mindset of scarcity. The birth announcement said, "Abundance - a reminder of the abundant, courageous love at the center of our Unitarian Universalist theology." The name Abundance was my son-in-law's idea who thought that naming her after a virtue made sense since Emily is a Unitarian Universalist minister. He also liked the Puritan tradition of giving babies names like Patience, Prudence and Hope. 

Now, Lily is one and a half years old and receives an abundance of love from her large group of parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousin. In return, she gives us so much joy.