Each moment of life includes a complex combination of taking and giving. Like inhaling and exhaling, this is mostly unconscious, but there is value in increasing our consciousness and personal responsibility.
We take in oxygen and nutrition. We give love, kindness, compassion, patience – and some thoughtless, regrettable behavior. We take rest and we play, sometimes at great expense. We give work, sometimes with great effort, in paid or unpaid service to others, from which we take fulfillment – but at some point we say "enough." We take support and joy from as many of our relationships as we can – person-to-person, citizen-to-society, human-to-nature – usually in some proportion to what we give to those relationships, but sometimes coasting on a feeling of entitlement.
With every breath, we continue the cycle of take and give, with some conscious or unconscious effort at balance.
I am alive and well: I know I am taking the basic necessities of life - and more. Is my taking and giving in a reasonable balance?
Am I pulling my weight in human society?
Is what I am doing or about to do consistent with the take-give balance I wish for a fulfilling life?
