Abundance Mentality: Free Coffee, Open Prosperity and the Black Canyon Shell Secret of Success
Abundance Mentality:
Free Coffee, Open Prosperity and the Black Canyon Shell Secret of Success
I’d like to introduce you to Donna. I met her on my recent vacation out to Arizona. She works at the Shell Station on 34400 S Old Black Canyon Hwy, Black Canyon City, Arizona. I stopped in only to get some gas and a cup of coffee, but left with a story to share.
And now, if you’re willing and open, you get to experience this tale of free coffee and the secrets of abundant success.
It’s unlikely that you’ve been through Black Canyon, or even heard of it, but some of the people who live there are extraordinarily generous. Especially when it comes to coffee.
Coffee? Yes; coffee.
Here’s the story: After I filled my rental car with gas and was ready for another day in nature with my cameras, I went inside to get a cup of coffee to help maintain my caffeine buzz.
I’m a hardcore caffeine addict for over 40 years and if I don’t get a fix on a regular basis, I go into a withdrawal rage and have a Jekyll-Hyde experience that can scare the stripes off of zebras.
Those who know me just keep me gassed up with coffee.
Now the coffee here at the Black Canyon Shell wasn’t all that great. It was one of those older coffee machines that looked like an aluminum version of an old Mr. Coffee.
But a little bleached white cane sugar and powdered creamer, and even the worst coffee becomes heavenly for some of us caffeine junkies.
As I approached the counter to pay, I noticed a ceramic coffee cup with a hand-written sign: “Coffee.”
I had a brief twilight zone-like moment trying figure out this cryptic meaning. When my altered state passed and I was still confused, I asked, “How much for the coffee?”
Donna, who was working at the time, responded, “Whatever you’d like to leave in the cup.”
I felt like this had to be an episode from Undercover Boss or maybe even Candid Camera because nobody runs a business by selling their products on a donation basis.
I asked Donna to explain. She said it again, “Whatever you’d like to leave.”
I put a dollar in the cup and walked away feeling like I had just won the Lotto.
“My lucky day,” I joyfully whispered to myself.
I drove off and did have a spectacular day out in the wilderness, capturing beautiful images of wildlife and nature. But I kept thinking about my Black Canyon coffee experience earlier in the day.
Why did they decide to “sell” their coffee on a donation basis?
After a full day out in the hot desert and two digital cards full of photographic images to be scanned into my laptop and processed, I headed back to our hotel for dinner and sleep, so I’d be prepared to do it again the next day.
As I was headed out to a new destination the following day, I saw the Black Canyon exit sign off US 17. I didn’t need any gas but felt compelled to get off and revisit the coffee phenomenon.
I walked in, got my coffee and walked up to the counter. Donna was there with another woman and as I approached them I commented, “Y’all must have quite the abundance mentality to sell your coffee on a donation basis.”
The other woman, who I think must have been the owner, smiled and quickly responded, “That’s how we do things here.”
There was then a moment that defies written words. The three of us exchanged glances at each other in what I would best describe as “spiritual giddiness.”
After this enlightening silence pause, I said,
“Pay it forward; I like it.”
“Yes,” said the owner, “that’s how we live out here.”
This moved my core and made my soul smile. I believe and have tried my best to practice this abundance mentality in my life but very seldom find others being so transparent as the people of the Black Canyon Shell station.
I hadn’t planned on it but I found myself reaching a little deeper in my pocket to leave my payment this time.
“Whatever bill comes out is what I’m leaving,” was the thought that ripped through my exhilarated mind.
I pulled a $10 bill and put it in the cup. The owner smiled at me, but Donna interrupted this moment of mutual abundance by saying, “You can’t leave that much. Take some change out of the cup for yourself.”
Apparently Donna wasn’t fully schooled on this Prosperity Principle.
I simply smiled at Donna and said, “Someone else needs that money more than me, and I’ll be doubly blessed by the end of the day.”
I’m not so sure she understood, but the owner had a big smile on her face and chimed in with an enthusiastic, “Yes, that’s the way it works.”
But what about you: Do you practice and live on these principles of abundance and prosperity?
There’s a very simple version of all this and I’m sure you’ve heard of it:
You reap what you sow.
It’s quite simple but it seems that more people, or maybe most people, operate from the fear-based scarcity principle: Get all you can and as much as you can because there won’t be enough and we’ll run short.
Abundance mentality, the prosperity principle and pay-it-forward are all one in the same. Giving out of abundance because you know Life will always provide is the core of this way of living.
It’s not easy to live this way as we are bombarded with messages of “not enough-ness” throughout our days. My parents were children during the Great Depression and everyday, during those traumatic times, they literally didn’t know where their food would be coming from.
They had a right to live in a scarcity mindset.
But you don’t. Really. You have a choice.
You can believe that there will always be more than enough. Or you can believe that there will never be enough.
It’s a life-changing experience when you’re able to give freely, knowing that you’re repaid tenfold.
And if you give away your coffee on a donation basis, you’ll be exercising an ageless principle of trusting the abundant process of Life.
I walked away from Black Canyon Shell with $10 less in my pocket, but I was refilled with hope and faith that humankind still knows the simple secrets of abundance and prosperity.
The remainder of that day was full of experiences in nature that were beyond words, and photographic opportunities that sizzled my lenses.