Good In A Jar

Give away your joy. Give away your love. Give away your life. Giving is a contradiction. By definition, to give is to take something from you and give it to another. The idea of giving is to lose something so that another can have something, but that’s not the whole story. Giving is one of the most selfish things really. It has a way of making you feel good about yourself. Giving takes something from you, but then gives something back, or maybe makes something that was not there before. However you want to look at it, giving is gain.

Giving is usually not gain of the same thing, but it is gain of something precious and impossible to make for yourself. It's like you traded something you had for something that you need.

Giving does not have to be a material thing, and it doesn’t have to be anything big or grand either. Giving can be little things like opening a door for someone, saying bless you when someone sneezes, a simple smile at someone who looks like they need to be reminded what peace is, or helping someone capture a picture of with their loved ones. Doing good is easy and simple in most cases, it’s only when good is withheld for a long time that doing good can become very difficult.

But, go ahead and give to people. Give and receive back. You may not receive anything right away or from that person, but you at least received the justification to know that you did something good—you have permission to feel good about who you are and what you do. Good is meant to be done. You can’t store good in a jar, or a bank account. Good is an action. Give it away and it will come back. Keep it for yourself and it will turn rancid.