Give, and Give Freely.

Everything is about giving. We give our time, attention, thoughts, emotions, and presence to different aspects of our lives. This calls for us to have decent boundaries in place on the amount we give, but nonetheless, life itself is a series of moments in which we must give ourselves to it. By being given a life, we must in turn, give ourselves to that life. Arriving at each moment as ourselves and ready to apply who we are to the situation. Most of what we are given remains out of our control. Like the weather, we can only predict what might happen depending on the season. In the growing season, we are given rain. During these moments, the plants are not asked to do anything but soak it in so they may sprout to feed the animals and insects that will depend upon them. Giving is a circular motion.

Like any other motion, there is its equal and opposite counterpart. To give is to receive. There is a level of participation required by the circle that one must give to receive and receive to give. When everything is laid out on the table, one can see how all that they’ve been given is a series of recycled thoughts dependent on previous environments that have been renewed by the present. One idea builds on another. A thought is given, and an idea is received. Life is an upward spiral with no clear beginning or end, but remains ongoing in a circular pattern. A caterpillar becomes a butterfly with no thought of making the change. Everything, everyone, becomes something else. For this reason, once we give, it is imperative to let go of the expectations of what will become of our giving. Otherwise, these expectations will be projected onto what is received. Projection is a way of the past invading the future, causing one to descend in the spiral.

Through giving, we declare a forward motion. That we are releasing what we have, and with it, all attachments to it. Both parties must release expectations so that what is given can be free of constraints. Expectation is only a limitation of what can become of something. This brings stagnation to what is given, as growth becomes more limited over time by expectation. However, stagnation can also occur for the actors when giving is absent in the circle. If we don’t give, we stagnate, leaving the circle to repeat the same place in the spiral. It is together, through the giving of our lives, that we advance through the spiral. That we do not hoard our talents, creations, and ideas, but share them with the circle so that one might receive and contribute to them, is what moves us forward. Our trajectory depends on our ability to give. So that something can become something else, like the flow of the seasons. Give your life to change; whether you realize it or not, you already are.

Give. And give freely.