“Do you really want to step into abundance and gift? Then do something that offers no direct path to return...something about which you can honestly say, “I'm doing this because it is my pleasure to give,” rather than, “I'm doing this so I will get even more back.” You might end up with more back after all, but if so it will come via mysterious paths. But you won't be concerned with that, because you will stand confident in the abundance of life, believing that as you care for life, life will care for you.”
~Charles Eisenstein
Ten years ago I was called to Hawaii by a seemingly mysterious force that wouldn’t take no for an answer. 😅
I just knew there was a lesson for me, I’d never felt that magnetically drawn to something so far away.
Over the course of a year I was immersed in the culture and guided by the elements, the land, the ancestors…as I lived off-grid with very little support and contact with modern civilization.
Just a few months into my journey I made my way to a farmers market on the Southern tip of the Big island.
This was a major turning point in my life, because for the first time in my life I was shown what life could be like without money.
I remember that moment so clearly, as I was admiring a local man’s artwork, I was wishing I had enough money to buy every one of his pieces.
The man noticed me appreciating the energy of his artistry and approached me very deliberately with a painting.
He said, “Here, this is yours!” When I responded with surprise, he smiled and handed me two more paintings.
At first I was very suspicious and confused. I kept refusing and saying, “I will be back when I have the money to buy something…you worked so hard on these, you can’t just give them away.”
He responded, “Yes, I poured my heart into these…and that’s MORE reason to give them away.”
Then he said something that woke me up from my uncertainty.
He said very certainly, “There’s only one of us here love.”
He handed me the paintings and said, “This is Aloha!”
It took me a good while to grasp the depth of what this meant and what I witnessed the entire time I lived there.
As I started to participate in gifting, everything changed for me. I knew that this was why I had journeyed so far, to experience this “radical” paradigm shift.
And to carry the “Spirit of Aloha” with me wherever I go.
It wasn’t until I read “Sacred Economics” by Charles Eisenstein that I understood how this way of living was the way of life for most of human history. This is what is called, “the gift economy.”
The gift economy is an experience that touches on the unseen currency of love, gratitude, appreciation, service and respect.
In communities that honor the gift, the wealthiest individuals are those who give or have given the most.
To give without expecting anything in return, is to fully trust in a Higher Power!
To alchemize the suffering in this world into gratitude and to care for the land that provides us nourishment is utilizing our fullest human capacity as instruments of God.
I truly believe humanity is a gift to the universe.
When we fear, take, complain, hate, gossip, compete, expect and feel lack, we compromise the strength of the fabric of humanity and our gift becomes more like a curse that erodes the foundation of everything and every relationship we touch.
Our experience feels superficial when we are neglecting to cultivate and infuse goodness, meaning and intention into our life.
The fabric of humanity has been weakened, not by individual people but by ideologies created through transactions based on unworthiness, material gain, lack, disconnectedness and distrust.
When we tap into the realization that every single one of us is worthy and provided for, and that we have been given the gift of life, and that we ARE a gift to humanity…the only appropriate baseline feeling is gratitude.
And from that space is where the gift will start to abundantly flow. Like a perennial spring that spews from the cracks of earth to GIVE LIFE!!!
Time will start to feel like it’s either speeding up or disappearing altogether. This is because we are accessing the causal point of our experience of life.
The alchemy of the heart and everything that births from that creative space is undeniable when we truly get it.
It will seem like everything is connected and in sync, because it is. It is because we are like individual fingers of Gods hand.
Synchronicities are just opportunities to tap into the awareness that there is only ONE of us here and we are all reflections of the Divine.
The deep intimate connections we make through service and gifts form the invisible strands of Aloha in the fabric of humanity.
With that awareness, as we connect with reflections of us, we realize that taking from another is taking from oneself, and giving to another is giving to oneself.
And one last note to “selves”…giving isn’t just for birthdays and holidays. The flow of Aloha is perennial. It is AS vital to human kind as the breath is to the human body.
May you allow yourself the gift of being breathed by Aloha, so that you know you are worthy, loved and so provided for.
❤️Pachee
P.S.
Below is a passage from a book about the true meaning of “Aloha”. Enjoy!!!!
alo, 1. sharing 2. in the present oha, joyous affection, joy
ha=life energy, life, breath
To summarize those meanings, "The joyful sharing of life energy in the present" or simply "Joyfully sharing life".
Below, in the words of Hawai'i's last reigning monarch, Queen Lili`uokalani (1891-93), is the true meaning of this magical word.
"And wherever [the native Hawaiian] went he said 'Aloha' in meeting or in parting. 'Aloha'
was a recognition of life in another. If there was life there was mana, goodness and wisdom, and if there was goodness and wisdom there was a god-quality. One had to recognize the 'god of life' in another before saying 'Aloha,' but this was easy. Life was everywhere - in the trees, the flowers, the ocean, the fish, the birds, the pili grass, the rainbow, the rock - in all the world was life--was god--was Aloha. Aloha in its gaiety, joy, happiness, abundance. Because of Aloha, one gave without thought of return; because of Aloha, one had mana. Aloha had its own mana. It never left the giver but flowed freely and continuously between giver and receiver. 'Aloha' could not be thoughtlessly or indiscriminately spoken, for it carried its own power. No Hawaiian could greet another with 'Aloha' unless he felt it in his own heart. If he felt anger or hate in his heart he had to cleanse himself before he said 'Aloha'."