3 AUGUST 2023 MORE

I read something interesting the other day in a book written by Heather Jo Flores, called Food Not Lawns. She suggests that we begin to give back more than we take. This is radical because the current paradigm is about taking all that you can get, as fast as you can get it. Everyone seems to think that the world revolves around them alone. In the world of “me” it is all about “my” life, “my” problems, “my” needs, and “my wants.”

In our monetary based system, we are told that we must be paid for our “time.” If we have a need to vent or to talk about our problems, we may pay for drugs, either illegal or pharmaceutical, to alleviate our suffering. Therapists are all too happy to listen to our problems, providing that either we, or our insurance company, pays them. Some religious organizations have “trained” practitioners who will pray for us. Tarot card readers and psychics will gladly take our money to tell us the version of our future that we want to hear.

In our current system where everything must be paid for, there is a complete misunderstanding of the way the world works. The ever constant holding onto and damming up the flow of good, results in scarcity – or too much. This is true whether we are talking about our own lives, or about the world we live in. We have created dams and diverted rivers to suit our own selfish needs. We are now experiencing water shortages in many places and flooding and contaminated water in others. Our planet was designed in such a way that everything lives in balance. This is most evident when we observe our own breath. We can take in only what our lungs can hold – no more, no less – yet always enough.

When we understand that there is always enough, we no longer need to block the flow of good, or to hoard it. We must give back what we take. We must give, in order to receive. How can each of us give back more than we receive, in order to bring our planet back to a state of equilibrium? It would be easy I think, if we all begin to “pay forward” and to change our mindset from taking, to giving. The more we give – the more we receive.