The Art of Giving
I thought giving meant losing something proportionate to what I gave.
At the day of your birth all eyes were on you. Even your mom played second fiddle in terms of you being the star of the show. While moms co-star in the event, dads are often found messing around in the background like stagehand volunteers trying to find something useful to do. This is day you were given life.
Your mom, the primary co-creator of it all, is required to give everything to you in this process of pregnancy. This means she gives you, as her baby; oxygen, blood, nourishment and safe tenancy in which to inhabit none other than – her body. Your mom’s figure may never be the same even if it’s limited to a scar or two. Fact is she gives it all.
Dads on the other hand are seriously challenged to give up; work, golf games, sports cars, sleep or personal time in lieu of having children. Not quite the same as giving up your body but nonetheless the principal is the same. Giving up yourself, or a freedom of any kind, is seriously costly and expense. This idea is simply stated; if you give something you’ll be minus something.
As a baby you were immediately introduced to this same giving and losing concept as early as your first time playing in a playpen with others. If your mom or dad, teaching you the merits of sharing, took a toy of yours and gave it to another baby then you understand. However, if you were anything like me as a baby, I didn’t appreciate the lesson and I cried. You probably did too.
Giving Doesn’t Mean Giving Something Up…
In kindergarten, if not before, your impression of having to give up something continued on the playground. If you were playing with a ball at one point someone likely asked you to share it. You many not want to share your ball but your mother, father, teacher, aunt and uncle all tell you that you have too. You might have thought this was unfair to have to give away something. This might have formed a child-like thought such as, I don’t want to give but I have too.
As a child, this message hit me hard after getting paid for my first odd job outside the family. I was counting my small mound of money when I watched my mom’s hand reach in and take some. “You will want to give this amount as a means of giving back,” she said. I argued, “I don’t want to give,” seeing what it was costing me. Openly, I didn’t really care what the cause was; Church or charity, this felt like stealing.
Regardless of the belief, logic or reason in simple terms, giving meant me loosing something proportionate to whatever I gave. I’ve tried rationalizing that I have more than enough to give but mathematically it was always costing me. I’ve tried appreciating the cycle philosophy that my giving is replenished by the giving of others. But in the end it’s still costing me.
Nature Is Always Giving
This changed when I noticed that nature always gave. I didn’t have to tithe. I didn’t have to say thank you. It was a stream that never stopped giving.
At first, I was very skeptical about this revelation. I was suspicious that it was another clever way of packaging the idea; giving is good, whereby I’d again loose something. As hard as I looked to discover the fine print where I would become poorer the conclusion continued to be the same – Nature was always giving. This baffled me.
How could nature continue to give to me without me having to give back? Where was the flaw? What was I missing? Where was the hook?
How could I give without me becoming poorer in the process? In my state of inquiry I watched Nature constantly give in love without question. In college, I majored in Business studying; economics, law, finance, accounting and marketing and not once did I observe this principal. I personally struggled wondering if I could actually go against everything I’d been formally taught.
Unconditional Giving
My transition to giving unconditionally was bumpy at first. I was only halfway committed to practicing what Nature was teaching and I attracted some who were all too happy to poach, suck and take from me. This felt extremely uncomfortable but I determined to go all in with my commitment to giving freely.
I propose the example of Nature that we should give endlessly in love. This means we do not become poorer as we give. My old teachings in business school from cost accounting to the founding principals of Adam Smith had to die. We have eternal Universal evidence that this principal is the key to giving.
The gift of love, that Nature so beautifully begs us to emulate, is all around. There is no cost as she, like the Source, continues to give and give and give. Some mothers who have given their literal life in birthing their children. I talk with these kids and these adults helping them to understand that their gift of life did not come at a great cost.
There can’t be a cost to any kind of unconditional giving. This would be illogical. When this is truly understood, even if a perceived “life is given for another life,” it wasn’t done at an expense. The reason, there is no death there is only life.
The art of giving isn’t a New Age philosophy or gimmick that is deceivingly costing you something. Instead, it gives you life, as an equal Creator. Giving, without hidden thoughts that you need to get something back, will put you in “the know” or in the middle of polarity. What I mean is, in the middle of Oneness there is no positive or negative.
This Oneness is the flow of Mother Nature. This is why the Universe, and Nature being a subset of it, continuously flows in its gift(s) of love. There is no end. If there is no end than nothing can be taken from it. Which means there is no cost.
The Universe is Constantly Giving
Even the concept of cost is disruptive to the reality of Oneness. While it is acknowledged as a polarity, in this dual Universe, it is but an illusion to the stillness, which never ceases. This love, or stillness, is in you and it is the core, or center, of your ability to create. This is why Nature and the Universe are continuously broadcasting its never-ending message.
This frequency is seen in light, electricity, sound, geometry and even a rhythmic pulse not exclusively found in our Universe but also in all. This Light is love, and it is foundationally true –everywhere. It’s amazing that I’ve ignored the simplicity of Nature for so long, but like you I imagine, I gave preference to I was taught.
Back to your beginning, all eyes are on you. You are enabled to give love in such purity that nothing is not nor ever could be taken from you. This means you are creator. The reason that The Creator would seemingly play second fiddle in honor of you is to see what you create. You can create anything using this understanding. All eyes are on you as star of the show.