Open Handed Giving

Recently, someone asked me about a gift they'd given me awhile ago. The reason I want to write about this is that the question and the gift had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the subject we were actually discussing. As I scratched my head and wondered why the question about the gift would come up, I thought about how this might be mirroring something for me.

Open Handed Giving refers to offering up a gift with no thought of quid pro quo, "this for that." It can be difficult to achieve if we really search our hearts. A great exercise is to watch yourself and your reactions whenever you offer a gift. And, of course, I'm talking about gifts of any kind - material gifts as well as gifts of comfort and help. Notice if you're looking for a thank-you of any kind.If you are, it's not Open Handed Giving.

I caught myself in the quid pro quo trap recently. I felt very, very good about a gift of time and space that I'd offered up to a friend which resulted in substantial gain for him. When no thank-you came, my thoughts turned to "Well, that wasn't appreciated! How could he not thank me? How rude!"

The good news is that upon awareness of my thought pattern, I could see my lack of open handedness and shift my reaction. How many times do we miss that awareness, though?

Check it out in your own life. Open Handed Giving really supports the age old maxim that "It IS more blessed to give than to receive!"

Oprah's Biggest Giveaway

Do you remember a few years back when Tuesdays used to be devoted to spiritual topics on "The Oprah Winfrey Show?" I do. It's the one day a week I would plan to watch. Until recently, when I did have time to tune in, I'd mostly be disappointed by yet another "celebrity" interview or silly fashion show. Supposedly, Oprah knuckled under to her producers' cries that the show was losing viewers and sponsor support for being too "religious." I must say that my opinion of Oprah dipped quite low, although I did hold out hope that she would bring back more important topics.

Well, by offering her free class with Eckhart Tolle, which begins tonight, she has redeemed herself big time in my eyes. Perhaps she needed to wait until there was a big enough groundswell of interest, a very possible tipping point, before she could really commit herself and her resources on a worldwide level, to something other than fiction.

I am halfway through A New Earth and have just re-read Chapter 1 in preparation for the first class tonight. I'm very, very excited about the possibility for mass transformation that this book and this class offer.