The Ice Cream Theory

There is a belief system that says that the total supply of material in the world is zero-based. This means that if someone has a cookie or an apple, there is one less cookie, or apple, available for anyone else.

It seems very obvious - a plus on one side has to be balanced by an equal minus on the other side – simple math shows they add up to zero. If I buy a house, no one else can own it until I don’t own it anymore. If I am wearing a pair of shoes, no one else can wear them until I take them off.

It doesn’t just apply to material things either. This theory says that there is only a limited amount of happiness, joy, success, luck and love available in the world. If someone seems to be getting more than their share of these, someone, somewhere, will have to go without. And since we take things so personally, we suspect that this might mean that we are the ones who will have less.

This fear can cause all sorts of terrible behavior in people. On a larger scale, the fear of lack can actually create lack because fearful people hoard and cling to what they have. Scarcity is created, not because there is a true lack but because the natural flow and circulation of energy has been cut off.

As anyone knows who has grown one, one small garden can produce much more than one family can use. Nature is endlessly abundant and pays no attention to theories. Spiritual law also operates on a different energy level. Energy exists before it becomes visible in the material world. Energy is infinity-based - it can never be destroyed, it can only change forms.

I love my cat. When I acquired another cat, I didn’t divide my love between them; I had enough for both. If I had ten cats, there would be enough love for all of them because my capacity, my energy, of love isn’t limited; it flows and increases. It isn’t a question of more or less love available - there is love enough for all.

Source

If I see someone eating an ice cream cone, I can sit and sigh and wish I had one. I can think, “There’s one less ice cream in the world now, and it isn’t mine.” I could get very angry and decide that they had no right to that ice cream when I didn’t have one! I might get so angry I that go and take that ice cream right out of their hands!! Ha ha! Now it's mine! And all this time there is an ice cream store right behind me where I could go and get my own, in exactly the right size and combination of flavors that I like best.

Life actually is a lot like an ice cream store, with thousands of flavors, and it’s never closed! When I see someone with an ice cream cone, I think, “Hey, there must be an ice cream store around here! Lucky me!”

When we see that others have what we want, instead of grumbling about what they have, we can realize that our own is out there too! The very fact that someone has it means that it’s out there - it doesn’t have to be invented, it’s available to us just as it is to them! How wonderful! It gives us a goal, creates a desire within us to bring something new into our lives.

Energy expands as we use it. We give energy a channel, a place to touch the earth and become visible. Energy is only limited by our use of it. Our thoughts can hold on to it so tightly that it can’t move and express itself. Our fear of lack, our envy of others, puts a death-grip on our energy. Energy isn’t meant to be held onto - its nature is to flow and change forms.

Life stands before us and asks, “Ice cream, anyone?”