Lenedra J. Carroll - The Architecture of All Abundance: Seven Foundations to Prosperity

Creating a Successful Life in the Material World

Lenedra J. Carroll

New World Library
14 Pamaron Way
Novato, California 94949

T his book like my life is dedicated to the understanding of the Divine excellence within each of us that, when lived, uplifts our humanity and moves us beyond our current limitations and difficulties and into the revolution of the Soul and its certain transformation of our individual lives, our planet, and our species.

I have lived elements of a rags to riches life. I have experienced times of severe lack but I now live a gracious and abundant life filled with the financial resources and possessions that most people long for. However, I did not achieve them by yearning after those things. This book contains the understandings, values, and principles that have allowed me to develop a generative prosperity in my life and by which I have developed businesses that reflect those values.

Key to my accomplishment is a learned ability to source the depth of my being and to follow a passion that drives my life. This passion underlies my experience the lessons, defeats, victories, and struggles my humanity. This passion is the essence of my purpose and my joy. It is in all the moments that led me to new methods, profound knowledge, and a vastly providential life.

This passion has been central in the development and management of the career of my daughter, Jewel, as a singer-songwriter, actress, author, and humanitarian. It is the principal impetus behind the development of the international companies for which I am responsible.

In The Architecture of All Abundance, I share the nature of this passion, the factors that have shaped it, and its integration into my life. In the process, I speak of Spirit, the Source, faith, the Soul. And I speak of God, having finally given up any argument about words and my frustrations with language as a means for discussing a power beyond the individual and collective human life. I have thrown up my hands at the attempt to pinpoint this and have chosen language I am personally familiar and comfortable with. I invite you to do the same.

All of the stories are from my experience and are in fact true some have been altered in consideration of the privacy of those involved; a few are composite stories. They reflect different ages and stages of growth, including the voice of my childhood and youth, the confusion and pain of lessons of the young adult, and the wisdom of experience and Spirit. The observations, ideas, and conclusions are mine. They are presented to provide a landscape on which you, the reader, may construct your own understanding.

At its basis, this book derives from my realization that I have lived a life in which I have remembered to a greater and greater degree that there is a force within us that has the potential to move mountains. This is what I have been dedicated to: remembering. Remembering who we are in our essence and discovering that essence to be profoundly powerful and grace-filled.

We are called to be architects of our future, not its victims.

H e didnt like what she had done so the man leaned down into the face of the little girl and hollered in a very mean tone,

Who on earth do you think you are?

She felt a response to the tone and volume of his voice and the message of his body language and words. She felt fear and confusion; she also felt offended. Yet at the same time she thought, This is a very important question. I will think about it when I am alone.

She often asked herself versions of this question as she grew older. There were many answers. Depending.

The winds blew across the pristine glaciers and mountains, over the waters of Kachemak Bay on the Kenai Peninsula to the remote Alaskan village of Homer. The tides brought the salmon running up the rivers; the midnight sun glinted as red as the countless fireweed flowers that covered the Homer hills behind our house. High in the winter sky the curtain of Northern Lights seemed to crackle on frosty Arctic nights. The land and the latitude accessed in me a subtlety that matched the wild but spare landscape. I experienced the courage and persistence of living things, the strength of the majestic peaks, the stability of the fertile bench of land bordering our bay, the rapid wax and wane of the short northern seasons, the reclusive energy of long winters, and the thrust of endless summer days. I knew the uncertainty and limitations of the life cycle, and the fragility of human beings in harsh environs. From the extraordinary energy of the land I learned the lessons of natures silence and observed the power and wisdom of whole, natural systems.

It was the allure of a new frontier and the wide-open wilderness that drew my parents, Jay and Arva Carroll, to interior Alaska in 1941. They joined my fathers adventurous brother, Ward, at his cabin on an island in the Piledriver River, near Fairbanks. My m o t h e rs Utah family was aghast, thinking them lost to the dangerous wilds where they could not be reached by car or even telephone. For these early pioneers, amenities were nearly nonexistent. The population was sparse and the environment so harsh that good judgment, common sense, and creativity were vital for survival. Hard work, sustainability, the integrity of ones word, and full cooperation with surrounding people and the environment were also essential. These were the values of my c h i l d h o o d .