The Flavors of Giving

The notion of that all is One with the Creator’s Identity carries many implications in many areas of reality, including in human behavior. The implications are that when one human being gives to another it’s just like the right hand has given something to the left hand. It’s “I” giving to “I”.

However to intensify the meaningfulness of such an act, the Creator cast over us the “illusion of separation”. Now giving becomes more challenging, as it now longer feels like the right hand has given the left hand or “I” have given to “I”. Rather people have become blind to their common identity. In such a climate every act of giving feels like a sacrifice; however, large or small. It feels like what’s given, is given up.

Are all acts of giving equal? Should a person specialize in a particular area of giving or should s/he simply be spontaneous about giving, working with whatever giving opportunity arrives?

As with most things in life, the answer to such a question is probably to seek the balanced middle range between the two extremes. On the one hand, a person should probably make himself / herself available for any sort of giving opportunity that comes along. On the other hand, a person should certainly also cultivate a specialty in a certain area of giving. Cultivating a specialty carries several nice advantages:

· Givers become more skilled at performing their particular act of kindness.
· People in need will know whom to go to (as a giver’s reputation increases).
· A necessary reliance among those who can potentially benefit has an opportunity to develop.
· Givers have an opportunity to select “giving specialties” in areas that are close to their hearts, enhancing their sense of personal fulfillment and their sense of the importance of what they are doing.
· Labors of love don’t feel too laborious. Givers won’t “burn out” as easily.

Giving outside a giver’s specialty is also necessary. The Creator wants our lives varied and not narrowly focused. Giving in a single area of life is probably not sufficient to satisfy the Creator’s agenda for any individual. Just like bodies were designed needing nutritional variety, so too souls were designed needing spiritual variety. Giving in all its variety really nourishes the soul.

Also, were giving to become too narrowly focused, it would lose its touch and flavor. Under such circumstances, even a personally cultivated specialized version of giving may lack necessary depth and dimensionality to truly satisfy the recipient. Imagine being waited on in a restaurant by a programmed robot instead of a human waiter. With a balanced giving focus, a warm, well rounded sweetness can enhance every occasion of giving.