giving

How hard it has often been for me to accept help. Male ego and layers of resistance mixed with pride, denial of need and stubborness, have all conspired to keep me from accepting help. Then, when the Giver emerged and gave, I often decried and devalued that person. I was the unwitting and selfish Fool.

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I have met two great Givers in my life. Both of them shared something in common that was intensely, amazingly and humbly great: their Heart. In each circumstance, they ran, RAN to give from the heart, to give and to give ceaselessly.

You will find, in the presence of a true Giver, a light, love, illumination, wisdom and warmth that is so strong, so invigorating, so right that you will want to bask in the light of it, bathing in its essence. But use caution and respect, because the true Giver never stops, and you can deeply hurt and harm them with your selfishness and greed.

In the case of one of the great Givers I have encountered, I often received without being adequately able to be appreciative and grateful… yet the giving continued. I basked in the Giving, but out of need and injury. In the other case, I had traveled much further down the path of life, and had come to deeply value the Art of Giving. In these more recent circumstances, as I received, I instantly gave back and appreciated. And a circuit began to form.

Older and wiser I had learned the Art of Giving, and now, standing in the light of a true Giver, something new emerged. In the extended moment of this principle I discovered a new dynamic: the Divine interplay of two Givers. In that moment, and the many more that followed, I found something so deep and so profound that my life was forever changed, for in the moment of ceaseless giving there comes a point where the appreciated value of the giving transcends time and space, and a new dimension is entered. A bridge is built, and laying on one side is earth and everyday life, and on the other side is the eternal and its unending stillness, power and harmony. Ceaseless giving brings you to this spot. Balanced between these two great dimensions, stands the Giver. Transformation occurs, because something powerful emerges: the realization of the Eternal Giver.

All of us are Eternal Givers. We simply haven’t all realized that. More certain than the laws of the physcial universe, Giving is our destiny.

Found in these few words are the essential principles of the Art of Giving: Respect, Appreciation, Gratitude and Value. Move sequentially, from one to the other. Find value, and learn to find it in anything. Then, respect that value, even if the respect is only a smidge. Once respected, be grateful, somehow, for the value and then appreciate it, finding a way to increase its value, no matter how small. Then, do that again. And again. Forever. This is the art of the Divine Giver.