Day 76: How to Receive

This post is an unusual one. It’s about receiving as well as giving. When I started 365give my dear friend Anna who was the catalysis to helping me get 365give up and running, told me I should have a part of the site that was dedicated to receiving. I didn’t quite understand that as the site was to be all about the GIVE rather than receiving. I didn’t understand the importance of receiving a GIVE. I was more focused on just doing what I do best – giving.

As 365give moves forward so many people around me want to help. They want to raise money for 365give and give it to me which in turn, I would want GIVE it away. I have one girlfriend about whom I will post at the end of the week, that is doing a raffle at her Christmas party to GIVE to me / 365give. She doesn’t want to me to GIVE it to charity, she wants me to use it help facilitate all the things I do for 365give such as gas, marketing, web support etc. I’m struggling with taking people’s money to support 365give as I am not a not-for-profit organization. I have a very hard time receiving such generous gifts as she very clearly told me one day.

I got the message again yesterday when I went to see my friend Cynthia, who practices the art of intuitive chakra balancing. Cynthia clearly told me that it was one of my challenges in my life, not being able to “receive”. She asked me what it would be like if all the GIVES I did for people both through 365give and other areas of my life were not received. How would that make me feel?

So today is about receiving and giving. My mother, who is a dedicated volunteer of 365give and wrote a guest GIVE for me about 10 days ago. (she edits my blogs every day before I post –  I am not a writer by profession and my English / grammar has much to be desired, especially as I am falling asleep writing some nights). I haven’t posted her GIVE yet as I have had so many GIVES to share with everyone I was holding off until I had just the right day to share it with you.

Today is that day. If you would like to share a GIVE with 365give I would be happy to post it and share it with the world. Your GIVE would be received with open arms and I will take the day off! Here is what she wrote as her GIVE of the day:

Day 76 / GIVE 76

The 365give Circle of Love

Giving can be a challenge if it is to be a circle of love

As we approach Christmas, Hanukkah and many other wonderful celebrations around the world, I decided it was time for me to tie Jacqueline’s hands together and write for just one day for her.

My GIVE for today is one that I am doing of my own volition and a surprise to Jacqueline.

I am unsure how or if this will work as she finds it difficult to receive ! Her Logo, I notice is a circle and that means that as we give so we will receive.

That which goes around comes around! The unending circle of love, if we care to make it so.

I am her Mother, the one she occasionally mentions for a variety of reasons, and her Editor in training! And in that capacity I, obviously, read all the reports on ‘Giving’ which Jacqueline does and writes about daily. This is not a new way of being for Jacqueline. She has been like this since she was very young. One of the earliest was probably in Grade 1 when a delightful student was enrolled in her class who was unable to hear, therefore also had difficulty speaking. It took no time at all before she adopted her as her friend.

Not only did she make a rapid friendship with her but also taught herself the language required to communicate –  sign language  ! That was just the beginning of many ‘Gives’ she has done over the years and I am certainly a recipient of many, especially this past year as I recover from cancer. She and her husband have opened their home to me for as long as I wish. Shared her beautiful son with me and has taken many more opportunities to ‘give’ to me, with no requirements in return. Giving freely!

I have four of these daughters, all are so generous, so as I write about Jacqueline, I want also to include the generosity of the other three.

Never once has any of 365give seemed onerous or a chore to Jacqueline. She gives truly from her heart and enjoys it all, doing it with an element of anticipation and delight, wondering what might be around the next corner and as a mission of her life. We all do GIVE in many forms each day and then there is that Giving, which is more out of our way than the routine daily things, that which is given with delight from our hearts and those extras we didn’t plan on, which make the difference.

This then brings me to that word receiving !  To be able to receive from the heart is a very humbling experience, and felt with deep gratitude. And is very different from ‘taking’…..

No guilt or expectations of a debt waiting to be fulfilled just a pure delight in receiving. I think in our culture we are not taught or modeled this easily as ‘taking’ gets muddled in their somehow. I have spent an entire year receiving from family, friends and strangers and it has been this ongoing giving of support in numerous ways that has so magically seen me through this year and I am sure as brought me back to a vitality in my health I experienced a long time ago !  I too needed to learn how to receive with gratitude forevery minute of this love as that is what it truly is.

So I want to take this early December Blog to say  ‘thank you’ to Jacqueline for all she has done and is continually doing for me and so many others and I invite you too to return this generosity by helping her to expand this rich work.

And I have invited Jacqueline to print this for one day instead of doing it herself  and I smile as I ask her to receive a little of the love she gives out !

I know it will go around in some way altho’ she does not look for the returns,  it is an unending circle of love……

Thank you, darling daughter,  for it all………….

Time: Unending

Cost: Gratitude

Thank you Mom for the generous GIVE of the day. I have received it, embraced it and will take the rest of the day off from writing. What a wonderful gift!