Imbalanced Give And Take

Just quite recently, I had this interesting discussion with a person I met at a park, we happened to witness a scene where two kids were arguing on who should use the swing first. It was an interesting situation that got me thinking about the complexities of relationships and collaboration in the real world.

The person remarked that he wished life was this simple and straightforward, because it just doesn't always work when we try to apply this same logic to adult relationships.

This made me think again about the whole give and take concept, especially from a macro perspective. In an ideal world, givers give based on the surplus that they have and takers take because they have a certain deficit that they can't get filled by themselves.

Actually, "takers" isn't that desirable as a name, too much negative connotations attached to it. Let's replace "takers" with receivers.

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There's an act of grace associated with receiving, and I've read numerous times that those who don't know how to receive aren't really good at giving. Their giving will always lack depth or dimension.

Part of the reason being that receiving allows us to be open to new experiences and perspectives, which in turn can enrich our own giving.

Thankfully, directly from the Source, we're all receivers, so learning to be a good giver is highly achievable.

Meeting Parallel Lines

Now, in the real world, giving and receiving seem to be diametrically opposed, in the sense that the act of giving may be seen as negating the need for reception, and the act of reception may be viewed as being unable to give in return.

For example, it's not uncommon that when we're sick we feel like a sense of burden to the people nursing us to recovery, whom quite likely will be reluctant to accept any shape or form of giving coming from us.

In a way, this is understandable, yet why does it feel inherently wrong to be the opposite of what we're meant to be(from the giver's perspective)? or just let go of the need to be completely self-sufficient(from the receiver's perspective)?

Perhaps, it hasn't yet registered in our mind that we can be both at the same time. Maybe also, it's just part of the human experience and this feeling can't be easily shaken off with rational logic.

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In any case, I think there's a preconceived idea or belief that giving and receiving are polar opposites, like parallel lines that never meet, which is quite untrue from a macro level.

Just observe the sky and the Earth, they may be polar opposites but there's a constant exchange between them, the Earth gives as much as she receives from the sky and vice versa.


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