The transition was gradual, really gradual. For a while, even I didn't
realize it was
happening.
It wasn't as if I woke up one morning, having taken it on overnight
like a new approach to life. To be sure, there've been occasions when I
did wake up one morning, having taken something on like a new approach
to life - regular exercising being one of them, a certain
rigor
about eating only good, wholesome, healthy food being another, being
smart managing my investments rather than simply fretting
about how to make more
money
being another. But this wasn't one of them. This was less physical,
less concrete. This transition was more of a transition in a way of
being than in a way of doing. It was a transition from regarding it as
being an opportunity to receive, to regarding it as being an
opportunity to give, to be of
service.
There was, to be sure, a precursor to this principle, a
context
which appeared which
inexorably
began
using me.
And the way it began to
use me,
subtly and somehow imperceptibly at first, eventually took up
residence
until it had fully occupied my
attention,
front and center
stage, to the degree where it became impossible to ignore.
Where it progresses from here, is wide open,
free,
and carries no obligation nor onus whatsoever - if it did, if it wasn't
wide open and
free,
if it carried an obligation or an onus, it would not be
transformation
-
transformation isn't
so ... well ... heavy. For me, the gradual transition from only
regarding it as an opportunity to receive, to regarding it as an
opportunity to give ie to
serve,
is grounded in this tenet, yet it's neither determined by it nor
dictated by it nor controlled by it. Giving ie
serving
is a
free
choice, a
free
choice which is neither determined by a tenet nor for that matter by
anything of the past. If it isn't a
free
choice then it's not giving or
serving,
yes?
And that's how it came to pass when
my daughter Alexandra
and I were planning for our Thanksgiving vacation together (my two sons
Christian
and
Joshua
were out of town) and she inquired "Well, what would you like to do,
Daddy?", I answered her "What I have in
mind
is cooking Thanksgiving dinner for four hundred people.".
So that's what we did: volunteered at a community center and did
exactly that: cooked Thanksgiving dinner for four hundred people, the
meals for half of which were delivered to the elderly and infirm in
their
homes,
the other half of which were served at a
sit
down dinner for those able to bring themselves to the center to enjoy
it.
There's a lot to be thankful for. And there's no doubt about the joy of
sitting
down for Thanksgiving dinner. I can't recall one single time when I've
done that myself when I haven't been thankful for the opportunity,
thankful for the relationships I have with the people in my life,
indeed thankful for
Life itself
- not to mention being thankful for being fortunate enough to have the
slightly uncomfortable sensation of having eaten too much while there's
still rampant hunger elsewhere on
our planet.
But that's just one kind of Thanksgiving celebration. The other kind of
Thanksgiving celebration, the kind when I'm not receiving but rather
giving ie when I'm
serving,
isn't better. Instead it's just a new way of
playing
the same
game.
That's what it is - and that's all it is. Coming from
service
ie coming from giving rather than coming from receiving, is simply a
new way of
playing
the same
game.
This is the same Thanksgiving dinner yet
transformed.
It's the same
gameplayed
in a whole new way.