What is my gift to the family of the earth?

I'll be forever grateful to Marianna Cacciatore, Executive Director of Bread for the Journey, for introducing me to Wayne Muller's book How, Then, Shall We Live? Muller founded Bread for Journey some years ago to nurture neighborhood philanthropy. Today they have 20 growing chapters across the United States.

Through all his writing Muller shows how we can experience a greater sense of inner wholeness and guidance, living a life of meaning, purpose and grace. In this book he asks us to consider four simple questions:

• Who am I?
• What do I love?
• How shall I live, knowing I will die?
• What is my gift to the family of the earth?

Knowing me, I jumped forward and read the last chapters first, in which he writes:

"Some of us wish to wait until our gift is potent and comprehensive enough to solve all the world's problems. Seeing that our gift is does not stop all the suffering, we decide it is inadequate. But every gift is a drop of water on a stone; ever kindness, every flash of color or melody helps us remain hopeful and in balance. Each of us knows some part of the secret, and each of us holds our portion of the light. We can thrive on the earth only if we each bring what we have and offer it at the family table...

A gift is like a seed; it is not an impressive thing. It is what can grow from the seed that is impressive. Clearly, we do not always know our real gift. One way to name our gift is to pay close attention to what we love. Many are becoming aware that the that the clarity and courage born of their own healing can also be made available for the healing of those in need...

Many of us believe that giving somehow means we must stop receiving. When I am trying to protect my position as the 'giver,' this marginalizes (those who receive as a) client rather than a human being whom I spent time with, who now wants to give back to me. When I also become a receiver, the walls between us soften, the boundaries disappear, and I am simply one of the family...

Real joy is to be found in the balance between giving and taking. Like breathing, we must both inhale and exhale. Inhaling is not superior to exhaling; one is no more noble or good than the other. They are both necessary. To name our gift is to also to name our need...

So the question 'What is my gift?' is not about coercing us into giving more and more, but rather about becoming more mindful of how we already intimately connected with everything and everyone..."