As part of my daily practice of reading about, and listening to, good news, I’ve run across a lovely post that linked to iJourney.org and had the title, “Make Your Life into A Giving”.  Here’s the link: http://www.ijourney.org/audio.php?op=play&tid=782.  It tells the story of the author’s great grandmother who, every morning, fed ants, birds and squirrels in her yard before she fed herself.  She reported that she filled up and was deeply nourished by this practice—more than she was, even, when she ate the food left over after she had given the major portion of her breakfast away each day.

Reading this post got me to thinking about the power of giving and the gifts we receive in return.  In this giving, I include offering smiles and gratitude to others, not to mention donations to needy people and organizations, help to those who need it … every conceivable kind of giving that comes from the heart, from our impulse to share with, and support, others.

For this week’s experiment, I invite you to think about the ways in which you give to others and what you receive in return when you do.  For me, there’s a big difference in my experience when I give from the spontaneous love of doing so as compared to when I give because I feel like I “should”.  The nourishment that comes from giving that’s like the giving described in the post on iJourney.org is that it comes from the heart, is an action of love, and connects us with the person, being or situation to which we offer what we have.

Also, over the years, I have learned to listen to resentment as a powerful companion along the way and I now respond to it in the same way I would to the sound of a meditation bell.  It offers me a signal that tells me I need to pay attention and not go forward on auto-pilot.  Whenever I feel any flicker of resentment, I immediately take an internal step back and look at what’s motivating me to say “yes” to something that doesn’t come from the heart. The specific things I discover are less important than the gift of awareness that allows me to return to the practice of generosity in a genuine, heart-centered way.  If I can’t do that, I don’t continue with whatever I was going to offer.

And so, as you explore your experience of giving this week, also notice when and where your heart moves you.  It’s been my experience that when we’re moved by love we fill up with profound nourishment that is an inescapable part of giving from the heart. 

As with all these experiments, play with this one as a way to increase your awareness of the choices you make, moment to moment, that affect the quality of your daily life.  Remember to bring along curiosity as your constant companion, pat any judgments on the head and let them move on through.  Learning to have compassion for our judgments, rather than having to fight them or take them seriously, can help us be friends with ourselves in a dynamically loving way.