What if everything we did, thought, said and experienced was perfect just the way it was? What if we came here to learn through our experiences? What if a Higher Power came to experience life through us so nothing was bad or wrong but just was? Would that change our perceptions of ourselves? Would we be able to be guilt-free and truly love ourselves? If we could truly love ourselves would we be able to love each other completely? Would this help us heal and continue to evolve?

I think so.

How to be a “Giver” without being taken for a ride:

• Make sure your cup is full so you’re giving from overflow.
• Find out what fills your cup if you don’t already know.
• Examine your own need to give like you do. Do you need to be needed? Why?
• Love yourself.
• Check in with yourself if someone is asking you for something. Do you really WANT to give or do you feel obligated?
• Only give what brings you joy. If you’re going to resent it later, DON’T DO IT!
• Don’t feel responsible for other people’s feelings. You’re only responsible for you own. Always.
• Allow yourself to receive. The natural flow of the universe is give and take. If you never allow anything to flow in, you are creating an energetic block.
• Make sure YOUR needs are met first and foremost. This isn’t selfish, it’s called self-nurturing.
• Remember that giving to people what they can get for themselves is enabling them to be dependent. Or, as my Mom says, “If you’re always wiping someone’s nose for them, they never learn to grab a tissue and wipe their own.” The best gift you can give someone is autonomy and independence.
• Rejoice in giving to yourself all the things that you often give to others. It’s hard at first. It feels self-indulgent. It’s not. It’s LOVE. You deserve love. Shower yourself with it. Swim in a sea of love of your own making.

Finally, if you’re scared that you’ll be alone if you stop giving all the time, let yourself feel that fear then RELEASE IT. The reality is that some of the people that were only taking from you might go away. But you know what? THAT’S OKAY! They will be replaced by people with whom you have mutuality. You will find people that have something to give to you. You deserve people like that in your life.

I’ve been listening to New Beginning by Tracy Chapman lately. There are so many amazing songs on that CD! This song perfectly describes my belief about the Earth, humanity and this beautiful gift of life we’ve been given.

Heaven’s Here On Earth

Tracy Chapman

You can look to the stars in search of the answers

Look for God and life on distant planets

Have your faith in the ever after

While each of us holds inside the map to the labyrinth

And heaven’s here on earth

We are the spirit the collective conscience

We create the pain and the suffering and the beauty in this world

Heaven’s here on earth

In our faith in humankind

In our respect for what is earthly

In our unfaltering belief in peace and love and understanding

I’ve seen and met angels wearing the disguise

Of ordinary people leading ordinary lives

Filled with love, compassion, forgiveness and sacrifice

Heaven’s in our hearts

In our faith in humankind

In our respect for what is earthly

In our unfaltering belief in peace and love and understanding

Look around

Believe in what you see

The kingdom is at hand

The promised land is at your feet

We can and will become what we aspire to be

If Heaven’s here on earth

If we have faith in humankind

And respect for what is earthly

And an unfaltering belief that truth is divinity

And heaven’s here on earth

I’ve seen spirits

I’ve met angels

I’ve touched creations beautiful and wondrous

I’ve been places where I question all I think I know

But I believe, I believe, I believe this could be heaven

We are born inside the gates with the power to create life

And to take it away

The world is our temple

The world is our church

Heaven’s here on earth

If we have faith in human kind

And respect for what is earthly

And an unfaltering belief

In peace and love and understanding

This could be heaven here on earth

Heaven’s in our heart

I love this magical little plant. I got a start of it from my sister-in-law. Apparently, the original plant was cared for by my partner’s grandmother. I love caring for it as my children grow. I feel as though I’m watering their roots in tandem with the plant’s roots.  

This fog moved in suddenly this morning. I live very close to the sound and I’m on a bluff so the fog moves through us here. I can see billows of moisture swirling in the air backlit by the morning sun. This is all accompanied by the sound of a foghorn. It’s completely enchanting.