Give to Receive

“Who we choose to be in the darkness makes all the difference in the world to who we can be in the light.”

I was reminded recently about a key fact about life that I seem to have overlooked lately: Love is giving to others what we desire for our self.

Today was one of those days when nothing seemed to fit. We all have those days, or weeks, or months where we feel nothing goes our way. When we go through these tough times we often look to others with hidden expectations for them to say or do something to bring us out of this funk. We forget that true love means not expecting something burdensome from someone else, but instead pouring ourselves and our resources out and into someone else. True love doesn’t look to others for some form of completeness. We shouldn’t look to gain from someone; instead we should try to love that person by giving them all we have to offer. Never look to prosper from another, look instead to give, for the act of giving means we had that which we desired to gain from another the entire time.

If you love someone or something, look not to receive but decide to give unconditionally.

Society teaches us that the “I” is better than the “We”- but the truth is, if there wasn’t a “We”, the “I” wouldn’t be possible. The stronger the “we” the stronger the “I” can be.

Everyone is connected in beautiful and mystical ways; we’re also connected at a very cellular level as well. We may all appear to be singular in form but it’s in our uncommonness we find that common ground is all we really share.

Try not to be a victim of comfort or self-indulgence, because in looking only to one’s self for the gain we miss that true personal growth can only be found in helping others to grow.

A universal truth that everyone should think about is this: for us to have what we want and for us to be a complete being, we must strive to give others the ability to be complete.

This is a tough dichotomy that takes some meditation to grasp, but once you’re able to wrap your mind around it you’ll never be the same again.

Together we are the drum that makes collective heartbeat sound, our purpose is to evolve as a culture and to spread a progressive, all inclusive love.

The old mindset that individuality is the most important thing needs to be replaced with the knowledge that together, people give the opportunity for the singular person to have the individuality they crave. The “I” is contingent and eternally connected to the “We”.

We live in a very “me” based society, but true growth as a person or the advancement of a culture only has the space for headroom when people come together as a collective unit and share a collective mindset towards a common goal. You can only be the best “me” when we choose to give others, through shared and loving experience, the power and ability to choose for themselves who they want to be.

Advancement is only done by asking one’s self one question, in every situation: Am I helping this person by building into them or am I looking to gain something from them in return. The very act of giving of yourself shows the universe that yes in fact, you already have what it is you think you need. Completeness and individuality are essential if we hope to live up to our potential, but our potential stays out of reach until we realize it’s only by helping others be who they want to be that we truly realize we were the person we wanted to be the whole time.

A very wise person who happened to live about 2000 years ago said “give and you shall receive, knock and the door shall be opened.” If we hope to receive what’s behind the door it only stands to reason that the act of giving leads our hands to first knock at the door.