| Drink First | 1 comment |
 10 Apr 2008 @ 16:24, by David Bartholomew[excerpted from DoingIt!, June, 2006] But someone was there to pump for me. And so I drank. I drank. I drank my fill. I rested. And was replenished. With the energy to carry on again, I first happened to look over my shoulder. Others were coming out of the desert, heading toward me… and the pump… and the life-giving water. And so now it was I who pumped. I stayed, in service, while they took their fill. And all not only survived, but thrived. Often we wish to help… to do… to be in service… before we have ourselves been replenished. This is not the way it was intended. As with a battery that will be slow-drained, then depleted if it continues to try to charge others without itself being “plugged in”, so do we work from weaker and lesser states when we attempt to do too much… without fortifying ourselves in whatever ways necessary. We are no good working on the behalf of others, when we are not working equally to maintain ourselves. Whether this looks like
… we owe it to ourselves and those we attempt to love and support… to take these types of actions first. This is not self-centeredness. It is not greedy. It is simply an honoring of our own needs. This is the natural order of things. Watch then how-- from a place of having been quenched-- we are more and better able to be with and for others. How that precious time taken for ourselves is more than returned in the ability to do the rest of our “to-do’s” more effectively. How the gifts of our time and concerns are now given all the more unconditionally, without resentment brewing beneath the surface. It is for each of us to learn, in the deepest recesses of every one of our cells, that we were designed to experience joy… first, foremost and always. Our primary work is to awaken to all that we deserve… and to claim it. Put every other priority beneath this one simple intention—to claim joy, peace, light, love for ourselves initially— and watch every other concern fall in line, effortlessly. Joy before struggle. Peace before worry. The smallest bit of light to overcome any darkness. And self-love unmatched by any other. Let God, Goddess, Great Spirit, Creator energy by whatever name you experience it… handle it. It is more capable than you. Allow your guides, angels, helping energies to work with you on your own behalf. Our first, first, first job... is to be in joy, to play, to ask for what we need and to receive it. Only after topping off our tank-- after drinking our fill-- only then—allow the same to work through you in the name of others. You cannot give… what you do not have. So claim joy! You are DoingIt! when you drink first… then … share. must have within itself the power of rejuvenation if it is to live.” ~~ Mahatma Ghandi |