Is there an art to receiving??.. How many of us are truly comfortable when it comes to receiving from others? Like myself, many of us who are in service to the world are very good at giving to others and some of us have learned to actually put a dollar value on our services, however we may still be struggling with the art of receiving just for receiving’s sake. The other day I received a beautiful card and note from a dear friend of mine, and in the card was a check for a significant (to me) amount of money. My first thought was ‘oh no’ why would she be giving this to me and the next thought was I cannot accept this.. no way, no how…I called her up and through the tears that had formed.. asked why she would do that and how I could not possibly accept her generosity, and she said to me.. Joanna, I want you to think about how much you that you have helped me and know that this comes from my heart as a way of saying thank you.. I told her that I really needed to pray about it and that I would get back to her.. and I did pray about it and also I looked within myself to discern why I had such a reaction to someone’s gift. What I discovered is worth its weight in gold…and the following is the letter that I wrote her back…
After praying about it, I have decided to accept your very generous gift..not only because it comes from your heart.. which is incredibly huge… because that I know in my acceptance, I will learn to receive with humility and gratitude, and then so will you and others that we touch and impact. As women, as sisters, it is becoming so important to support each other and show that support with positive life giving action. YOU embody that so well.. I always, always learn and receive from you… it did not have to come in the form of a check for me to know that…. however the fact that it did showed me something about myself that I had not seen clearly before… and that is I struggle with owning my own positive power and therefore cut myself off from receiving from that empowered place… its funny to me how I always believed that power and humility were in complete opposition to one another, now I see that is just not true… you have to be humble first and that humility is what allows you to fully step into that power… Wow… who knew that your beautiful, generous gift could ‘buy’ so much.. I love you with all my heart… and knowing that you believe in me means more to me than I could ever express… May your generosity come back to you 1000 plus… Joanna
There is power in receiving and my dear friend gave me more than she could have possibly known. So whoever is reading this blog post right now ask yourself this question… Am I allowing myself to receive from an empowered place? And if that answer is no then let today be the day that you learn the art of receiving. Namaste’
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