Opening the Circle

I am not the sort that takes a compliment well, though I am getting better. And it is difficult for me to be on the receiving end of gifts. I am the one who gives.

See, I forget that when we are not comfortable about receiveing gifts, we deny others the sincere joy of giving. Wonderment is a pleasure but service to others is more of a pleasure.

We honor, both ourselves and others by allowing ourselves to be loved and appreciated.

In my culture- supposedlyJudao-Christian in nature-- it is humbling to receive gifts; we must be not be proud or lustful or greedy. But if we are giving others joy be receiving gifts with gratitude, then are we not honoring the Divine Connection with all things?

I suspect that there is a balance to receiving and giving. How do we find that when the individualistic society presses it's tribalistic/globalistic agenda in our face?

I say...open your circle. Get to know more and more and more people in the most real ways possible. Listen to their stories. And notice how they are lik you and me and then, notice again.

You only Have this Tool: Take Care

She said, "Healthy communities focus on what is possible."

I say, so do healthy people.

She said," Ubuntu: We exist because we are together."

I am grateful for this word, because it summarizes what we know intrinsically: that we are NOT made to be able to exist without connection, not matter how much our ego says that we wish to stand on our own.

Love is much more demanding than Law.--Archbishop D. Tutu

We are bound to one another by love and love alone. We have a desire to see others survive so that we might do the same. Therefore, if you do unto yourself what you would have them do to themselves.....well....

I find the battle to be able to take time and space to get what I need is real, long, intense. As a young leader I find myself wanting to give up on trying to inpsire others...someitmes wanting to scream out, warning them to quit now. But what I know to be true is that their survival is dependant on my survival....and vise versa.

Spread love.