Aryn Henning Nichols

Make your own Abundance Jar at home!

Cultivating an abundance mindset this summer? Simply hoping to appreciate more things around you? Or perhaps you want some positive notes on hand the next time you’re feeling down? Make an Abundance Jar! Download our coloring template and prompts for this easy project!

Supplies:
Abundance Jar coloring template
Abundance Jar prompts page
Colored pencils
Mason jar
Scissors
Tape

Pick out how you’d like to color your Abundance Jar sign. I chose to do a rainbow of colors (obviously, haha).

Color as you wish! I love a little coloring for mellowing out.

Here’s my finished Abundance Jar sign!

Now you cut it out. There’s not right or wrong way to do this. I added little swoops…

So it looks a little bit like a cloud!

Next make some tape loops to attach to the back of the sign (to then stick to the jar).

I put more than I probably needed in place, ha!

Line the sign up so it’s even on the jar.

And then place it on the jar, making sure it’s stuck in place! This part is done, and it’s time to move on to the good stuff you put inside!

Grab your Abundance Jar prompts page

If you have a guillotine paper cutter, use that, otherwise if you’re cutting with scissors, fold the page in half the long way, and cut along the fold.

Put the two halves on top of each other, and cut into four even cards.

Finally, use the prompts to see the abundance around you!

Collect reminders of the things that make you feel abundant in this jar, and pull them out whenever you need a little spot of sunshine and positivity!

NATHANIEL CROSE, AGE 14

There’s a jar in my home

Filled with the joys I hold dear

It shines brighter and brighter with each passing year.

My joys aren’t too grand

Or covered in gold

Instead, they’re small dreams that will never grow old.

Thunderstorms at night,

Or a cozy winter storm

I find delight when the world is cold and I am warm.

I love resting after a long day

In a clean and organized room

And kicking up my feet with nothing really to do.

But it’s not just the relaxing things I enjoy

It is grinding day after day with a true runner’s grit

And the satisfaction that award brings when you finally earn it.

However, sometimes the weight of the world is too much

The jar goes dark, my Light seems gone

And I forget the joys that once made me strong.

I trudge through the day

Without meaning or scope

Until at last my jar shines with newly found Hope.

So that is my abundance jar

My treasure, my heart, my soul

I hope you too find pleasure in the things that make me whole.

Editor’s Note:  We created Future Focused, a new Inspire(d) column written by pre-teens and teens, to help give the next generation an opportunity to share their voices. Partnering with Dana Hogan, the Extended Learning Program teacher at Decorah Middle School, we offered prompts around the idea of abundance for this issue (and Dana had the genius idea of a metaphorical “Abundance Jar”). Students submitted some really great work, and five were chosen for this Inspire(d). Check out the rest of them, and all the Future Focused submissions published so far! Here’s to Listening to the Next Generation!

– Inspire(d) Editor-in-Chief Aryn Henning Nichols

RUTH KUENY, AGE 13

While some may fill their jars to the brim

With fleeting joys 

Like walking in the city late at night 

Or biting into a melty and rich freshly-baked cookie

Or rereading a favorite book

The flicker of light brought by these is not dependable

What happens when there is no city to walk in

Not a freshly-baked cookie to bite into

Nor a book to reread? 

Like fireflies, they flash bright and then disappear

Their sparkle of joy seemingly vanished.

My jar occasionally gathers dust from neglect

The lid loosens with yelling and fighting.

The light seems to leak with insecurity.

The body cracks with stress.

And then I remember what I keep in my jar

I like to fill my jar with the moon, the weather, the stars, the clouds. 

The sky. 

When the moon shines bright and illuminates everything with an ethereal glow

When the beautiful spattering of the Milky Way is thrown across the night sky

When the clouds form animals and bound across the sky, dancing with the wind

When the thunder rocks you to sleep, humming its deep lullaby

When the sprinkling of rain decides to pour until your clothes are sodden and your spirits light

When you take a moment to appreciate the sky

To appreciate the filled canvas that the earth paints every day

To appreciate that as the atmosphere reflects blue, we can reflect on the sky too

To appreciate that not every day is perfect and sunny, and sometimes the most beautiful moments are in the rain. 

That is my jar

And any time the light dims and the dust collects, 

I look to the sky

And the dim light brightens

Radiating its warmth and light

Showering everything with warmth 

And I have my own star

Editor’s Note:  We created Future Focused, a new Inspire(d) column written by pre-teens and teens, to help give the next generation an opportunity to share their voices. Partnering with Dana Hogan, the Extended Learning Program teacher at Decorah Middle School, we offered prompts around the idea of abundance for this issue (and Dana had the genius idea of a metaphorical “Abundance Jar”). Students submitted some really great work, and five were chosen for this Inspire(d). Check out the rest of them, and all the Future Focused submissions published so far! Here’s to Listening to the Next Generation!

– Inspire(d) Editor-in-Chief Aryn Henning Nichols