After a weekend spent channeling Isadora Duncan, swimming like a dophin and yelping like a whale at a Berkshires retreat called "Coming Home to Your Heart," I took away a simple message

"All along I had what I needed. It was enough."

These words  came  out of me almost unconsciously as I  recorded my thoughts on paper after waking from a dream. I wrote about the sense of scarcity that I feel in my life; it’s a primal feeling I’ve carried with me for years. But it also connects to my fear of not being able provide for myself and my family – now and in the future. A common fear many of us hold at this stage of life.

The anxiety, the sense that there isn’t enough – money, time, space, talent, love, things, attention, goodness, nurturing. In so many ways I focus on what I don’t have.

Back in Brooklyn I’ve been thinking about those words over and over. It’s become my mantra as I go about my business in the Slope – walking to my office, to the school, to meetings, to the gym, to the Park. What does it mean really? Or to be more exact: how many things does it mean?

"All along I had what I needed. It was enough."

This morning in the shower, I felt some of the fortifying solitude I felt during the silent breakfasts in the Berkshires. Revelation: I could wake up just 15 minutes earlier each morning and be alone, shower luxuriously and meditate. I have the time that I need. I just need to use it.

On leaving for school with my daughter, I couldn’t find my keys. The usual panic set in. And no, they were not on the handy key hook that’s right by the door.  An hour later our neighbor called, "I have some keys, they may belong to you…" They were in her apartment all along, I’d left them on the stoop. All along I had what I needed…

And now, facing a congested day, I made some calls, moved some appointments around and now I feel like I have enough time to get done all the things that need to get done today.

"All along I had what I needed. It was enough."

I can’t wait to discover all the things that means.

-Louise G. Crawford