GIVING & RECEIVING

Never underestimate the beauty of giving
The gift of Receiving.
When you openly and gratefully receive something,
You are giving to the Giver.
Graciously receiving the bounty offered by another
Blesses and enhances both the giver and the receiver,
And opens us to the flow of all creation.

This is a flowing universe,
Ebbing and surging,
Expanding and contracting,
Creating and destroying,
Exploding and imploding,
Rising and falling,
Giving and receiving...........

The whole of nature receives from the earth, and its universal environment
All that it needs to be what it is --
Food, air, sunshine, a place to hang out.....
And nature, in turn, gives of itself
Freely and unconditionally.
No money changes hands;
No limits or conditions are imposed
By anyone or anything, except man.
Everything is free.
Everything.
Abundantly.
Each tree gives its shelter, each flower gives its perfume and colour
Unconditionally and without prejudice or favour.
(A tree doesn't look at a passer-by and say to itself "I'm not going to give my shelter to HIM!")
And, just in case you hadn't noticed,
This natural system works,
And worked for a long time before we showed up.

Whatever we human beings decide to be, we are supported;
Mother Theresa or Adolph Hitler --
Everyone is totally and unconditionally allowed and supported
By an abundant universe that celebrates diversity.
Whatever we decide to be,
Existence sets up the creation, makes space for us,
And gives us everything we need
To become what we think we are.
In return --
We have to give of what we've created.
Give, we must.
We have no choice but to give of what we are.
If we don't give willingly,
Life has a way of ensuring the flow of energy returns to Source,
With or without our consent.
This is the law of reciprocation, cause and effect, sequence and consequence;
There is no choice about it.
But we do have the option, the space, and the responsibility to Choose --
Choosing what-is to be as it is,
Choosing to participate or resist the flow,
Choosing what we decide to be and experience,
Which in turn influences what we will receive
From our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual environment.
We also choose what and how we willingly pay forward of what we are.
It is a law of life.

RADIATING, SERVING AND SHARING


Our giving can take the form of Radiating, Serving or Sharing.

Radiating is the aura that involuntarily emanates from the deepest core of our being.
Sometimes our radiance is in harmony with the images we have of ourself
And the facades we put on like make-up every morning
As we prepare to "face" the world.
More often, however, the radiance and the ego-generated images are out of kilter,
Generating confusion, misunderstanding, hesitation and distrust.
A person who ignores his/her own radiance and relies on the manufactured image,
Is almost certain to miss the radiance of others,
And be fooled by their appearances.

Service.
There's a lot of altruism wrapped around the concept of Service,
So what I'm about to say is bound to get up some nostrils.
Service is touted as the most noble of all endeavours, and as a highway to heaven.
Well, I beg to disagree. In my book
Service sucks.
It is (usually) just another phoney façade.
My father taught me Service and Sacrifice
(Notice how often those two are grouped together);
My mother taught me Sharing.
My father got a carefully cautious, polite wrap in his eulogy;
My mother touched lives, and her passing mattered.

My objection to service lies not in the altruistic act itself,
But in the motivation for it --
The place the server comes from in the act of serving.
It seems that people who Serve are in it for some reward,
They want something in return.....
A sale, a ticket to heaven, a convert, friendship, support.
When they don't get what they want in return,
Resentment surfaces,
A resentment that always existed, hidden within the holy cloak of Service.
Their serving is synthetic;
It is all give, with little take
And it is either coated with sticky adhesive (like flypaper), or loaded with barbed hooks (like an Italian mother).
Service has no internal warmth.
It is an act of pure selfishness.

Sharing opens up an ebbing and flowing of our deepest self.
Sharing has deep multi-way value.
As you look more closely into the act of sharing,
It becomes impossible to differentiate between "givers" and "receivers";
It is one process.

Sharing involves personal commitment and communion.
There is no resentment, no contraction, no conditioning;
Everybody wins and grows.

The difference between serving and sharing is one of attitude,
How you see it,
Where you come from while you're doing the altruistic thing.
The results differ, too.
Serving can be likened to sowing genetically modified seed --
The crop may be edible,
But you can't grow another crop from its seeds,
And God knows what other side effects lurk inside.
Sharing is creative and natural;
It is our nature.

Open sharing is genuine,
Both selfish and un-selfish.
To Share you must first know and love yourself;
You cannot share what you don't have.
If needs be, hold off on sharing until you can do it willingly,
And give only what you can afford to not-have.
When you give away something you cannot afford,
You are "sacrificing" --
The shittiest control game on the planet.

I use a number of analogies for Sharing -----
Consider a honey-bee.
The bee takes proffered nectar and, in so doing, spreads life-generating pollen.
Neither the bee nor the flower think about this,
Or negotiate a deal;
It just happens -- naturally
While the bee is being a bee, and the flower is being itself (pun intended)
I use the analogy of a raincloud
Which becomes so heavy with moisture
That it gives naturally of its life-giving water
So that it may be en-lightened.
To use another analogy that works for me --
A fruit tree in season becomes so burdened with its fruit that it is bowed down.
It is grateful when someone comes to pick its fruit
So that its limbs can rise again to the sunshine
And bear more fruit.

Neither the honeybee, the flower, the raincloud nor the fruit tree seek any reward --
They are glad of the enlightenment.
By the same token, a receiver ought not feel obligated,
For in taking what was freely and unconditionally on offer,
The receiver is giving.
No hooks, no obligations, no tit-for-tat, no unfinished business.
If you feel any sense of obligation,
Walk away,
And look at your contribution to that situation.

Service sucks
Sharing is the dignity of being
In action.