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What do you need?
I awoke from this dream and realized that "How can I help you?" is a question I would like to ask more often. I would like to shift my focus from "What's in this for me?" to a place of offering. I started thinking about what it feels like to buy a bag of groceries for a friend who is ill. Or to drop a bill into the hat of the homeless man who sits on the corner. I thought about the joy of sending a surprise care package or buying a single Gerber daisy for the woman who runs the local drycleaners. Two nights after that first dream, I then dreamed that I had an armful of gifts for people around me. I was so happy. I could feel immense energy and delight ... and in the dream I thought to myself, "These gifts I'm giving to others are filling me up with happiness." This might seem like an unlikely time to be talking about giving, when so many people are living in fear of not having. But my sense is, it's the perfect time for each of us to turn to someone and ask, "How can I help?"
Will you do two things for me today? Will you give something unexpectedly? And will you ask for something you need — and in doing so give someone else the experience of giving? (If you're inspired to, please write and tell me your experiences; I'd love to hear!)
We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.
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