The Gifts of Plenty
This is a time of year, in the northern hemisphere, when a lot of people are seeing the fruits of their labors... literally. Starting near the beginning of the year, people gave the gifts of tilling and loosening to the soil, the gifts of warm cozy homes rich in nutrients to tiny seeds, and the gift of continued safety and care as those plants grew. The sun gave the gift of warmth and energy, rain gave moist plumpness and flexibility, and the soil gave it's nutrients, all to foster the growth of the fruits and vegetables in gardens and fields everywhere. And now, toward the end of the year, the plants are offering gifts in return. Pumpkins and beans and apples and wheat and thousands of other life-supporting foods are gifted to us. This perpetual cycle of gifting happens all around us, in every aspect of life, when we allow it to.
Within this perpetual cycle of gifts, all beings are provided for and all live in abundance. When we forget that we have gifts to give, when we choose not to share them, and when we forget to graciously accept the gifts of others - that's when this cycle of common wealth is thrown off kilter and breaks down; we create extremes of need and overabundance and and no one is truly happy. Remember your gifts. Give of them freely. When it's naturally time, joyously receive the gifts you are offered by others and the world. This is the cycle that, when allowed to run it's natural course, allows all things to live in a state of plenty. All beings are interdependent and only when we live in a way that honors that do we truly live in balance.
