“The impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.”

And you are constantly inspired and gifted by those who are more open than you in the moment. The gift must be given. Circulation is the law. If you try to hold back, you suffer. You must freely give your deepest gifts without holding back, and you must also freely receive from the source upstream. Suffering is only your refusal to open. You are al

And underneath the phrase is the unspoken suggestion that to receive is to be the weak one, the needy one, the poor one. Of course, from this perspective most of us would rather be the ‘giver’ than the ‘taker.’ The giver is rich and secure and doesn’t need anyone’s help. But taken to its extreme, giving becomes pathological.

Chances are, if you can’t accept help, you can’t really give it.

We may give and give and give so much that we run ourselves ragged. In reaching out to others, we give our own arms away. We are under the spell of a misguided belief that if we aren’t always offering, providing, and holding space for others, that we will lose what little love and security we have. But even deeper is the fear of being vulnerable en

We call people selfish when they WILL NOT give. But they CANNOT give what they DO NOT have. It’s like asking a starving child to share her food, and then making her feel guilty for not wanting to. When we have enough we are eager to share.* *What we have and what we are able to receive are two very different things.

The act of giving if received properly is a nourishment to the creative spirit. Love feeds love. And our creative waters are restored by filling another’s cup.

It all tightens until what others need is anticipated beyond what is real, and then, without any true need being voiced, an anxiety to respond builds that can only be relieved if something is offered or done. At the heart of this is the ever-present worry that unless doing something for another there is no possibility of being loved. So the needs o