PRACTICE GIVING AND RECEIVING

Sometimes on the journey to receive we discover that we are not so good at receiving.

Receiving is a place of vulnerability. Giving is a place of safety - we get to decide what we give and when we give and how we give and to whom we give. But receiving opens us to the unknown. It brings up our worst fears and sometimes are greatest wounds and disappointments.


Will we receive what we love? Are we really seen? Does anyone really know us? Have they taken the time to care about who we are and what we love? Have we taken the time to give ourselves what we love and care about? Have we shown ourselves to others? Or are we still in hiding?

Opening to Receive with JOY is a practice...expanding the boundaries of our allowing...opening to receive...means often confronting the places in ourselves where we have been afraid..where we have felt overlooked, or disregarded, forgotten....and where we have first overlooked and disregarded and forgotten ourselves. Because everything is a mirror of us. If we are not receiving, we are not giving to ourselves or others. Where we hold back, the universe holds back. When we give with love, appreciation and gratitude, the universe gives to us with love, appreciation and gratitude. And receiving depends on giving to ourselves and others.

Give yourself something you love today. Discover something new to give to yourself and enjoy the pleasure of receiving your own love. Then go out and give to someone else. A smile, a kind word, a flower, lunch, a tithe, a gift, a surprise. Something. Anything ....anything given in love will come back in the spirit in which it is given. Make giving and receiving a practice. A practice that becomes so second nature that you become a fearless giver and receiver....and then watch the magic bloom in your life.

Flower photograph -2010-, courtesy, Marilyn Westlake, photographer, Toronto, Canada.