The extent to which we give in our lives has everything to do with how much we receive. I am going to say that again, the extent to which we give in our lives has everything to do with how much we receive.

I stood at the gas pump this morning filling my car up in the sunshine. I always stick the pump in and then head back to sit in my car, avoiding the cold wind and such. Today as I was sitting in my car waiting for what felt like a longer time than usual, I decided to get out and pump it myself thinking maybe that would go quicker. As I pumped the gas, I noticed there was an older man standing on the other side of that pump. I peeked around and said hello. As he stood with his hands in his pockets he made me aware that this particular pump is really, really slow. I hadn't noticed before, or maybe had simply always gone to a different pump, but I said to him, "You know I think it is a good thing this pump is slow, what's the hurry anyway?" A smile spread across his face as he shared with me his recent trip to Hawaii, a story about his daughter and something else I can't remember. Not only my gas tank was full when I left, I was, mostly from his smile I think. His smile spread from ear to ear.

How we show up in the world has everything to do with how much we receive, how much we take care of ourselves. Do we rest when we need it? Take a bath, hold a hand. Slow down.  We live in a culture that overexerts itself; where action is valued far more than being.

Be radical in your receiving, even and especially, if your thinking mind says you don't have time. I hear many young people say, I just don't have time to be with myself. We are teaching them this and if you are a stranger to yourself, a stranger to receiving yourself, how can we possibly give back to this world from a rooted place? In our hurry we are avoiding ourselves. Being busy seems to be the number one addiction in this country. We are knee-deep in our schedules often having somewhere else to be rather than right here in the moment.

My friend at the gas pump this morning asked, "What are we all hurrying to anyway?" What if we all hurried back to ourselves and not to the "next thing." Come back through the breath. Put your hand on your chest today and be breathed. The fact that we did not have to schedule our breathing today, that it just happens, is a miracle. Try being with this miracle once a day and see how it just might change the ways you move through this world.