Giving Is Not Better Than Receiving

The common phrase of "it is better to give than to receive" just doesn’t sit well with me anymore, and here is why:

For a while now, the concept of RECEIVING has popped up in my life all over the place, causing me to stop and reevaluate my perspectives. Countless times I have reflected on this word, what it means, and why it is different from "taking" and its relationship with "giving". During my ponderings, Mother Nature has taught me a few things.

One day during the summer, a small thunderstorm rolled in and provided a light drizzle of rain. My family and I sat out on the porch, watching the rain fall. After a while, my husband told me that before it started raining, he felt the grass, trees, and flowers sitting in excited anticipation for the coming rain. Then, the plant life all rejoiced in what they received as the storm came to an end.

There was that word "receive" again. As I thought about what my husband described to me, I felt the rightness of his words. 

Plants don’t take the rain that falls; that is an energy of lack and imbalance, a fear that there is a scarcity and keeping to oneself. Plants instead receive and rejoice. If you spend enough time in nature, you can feel this. Receiving is an energy that harmonizes with nature, because it connects life to abundance and balance.  

A tree, for example, receives sunlight and air, as well as water and nutrients from the soil. With the light, air, water, and nutrients, the tree lives, grows, and bears fruit. All the while it is receiving, it is giving back to the world. There is no lack here. There is only abundance and balance.

Another example from Mother Nature comes from the bird feeder hanging in my backyard. I watch the birds come to the bird feeder throughout the year. They happily receive what I have put there just for them. All they have to do to receive is to show up at the bird feeder and eat. They chirp and bounce from branch to branch around the feeder, and in their moment of receiving, they give birdsong and joy to me, completing a cycle of balance.

So is it better to give than to receive? No. I don't believe this to be true. What can anyone give unless they first receive? How can giving be better when receiving is just as important? What a person receives truly affects what they are able to give, and all living things can thrive joyfully when existing in this balance of receiving and giving. It is within this balance that there is flow, connection, and symbiotic relationships and it makes the world a better place.

I receive before I give, and in my giving, I open up space to receive more, grow, and give all over again. 

It's joy. It's beauty. It's the foundational cycle of life.