“…When we give in the world what we want the most, we heal the broken part inside each of us.”
- Eve Ensler From her TED Talk “Happiness in body and soul”
When I heard Eve say this phrase a light went off. It is so simple, so true, so obvious. How had I forgotten?
I was not raised Catholic, but I the words of St. Francis still found me and I memorized his peace prayer years ago. It contained a line stating that “It is in giving that we receive.”
This time of year is often filled with giving of gifts. Sadly it is also filled with the feeling of giving out of obligation rather than out of kindness, love, or compassion. This year I am considering my giving thoroughly. The obligations are to be transformed by love, or they are to be done away with. No one wants a crappy gift anyway.
Okay, that may not be true. I can think of some people who want gifts, no matter how lacking in heart they are, so long as they are of high dollar value and in large quantity. Well… there is only one thing that can help that person find what they really need. Nothing. Seriously, the gift of nothing. When a person is not happy with anything, always asking for more, more, more, then I say “Give them the only thing that will ever fulfill them: Nothing.”
While I believe giving is essential to our happiness, I believe giving well is more important than simply handing all your things over to the next person you bump into. I feel in this time we should focus on what we really want. Things like Love and respect. Find a way to give that to someone, and give it freely. Even if you don’t get it back from them, you may just get it from someone you may have forgotten. Someone who really matters. Yourself.
