God gives us the seed but we must nurture the seed … He gives all they ask and can receive, but they must regive equally.
— Walter and Lao Russell
Our one and only mission in this world is to use our abilities, skills, and talents to benefit humanity. We are given inspiration, insight, ideas, concepts, and solutions so that we can regive, reproduce, apply, or propagate good with one another. The extent to which we can channel those generative energies into tangible results — by producing, creating, disseminating, and following through — would thus be the standard by which we would measure our success.
The air we breathe is freely given, but we must breathe it in, and exhale it again. Imagine only ever breathing in. In fact, shallow breathing is associated with a variety of modern health issues. Imagine receiving a flurry of ideas for songs, books, films, or stage plays but never finishing or producing them to release into the world. I’ve done this hundreds of times across dozens of projects, and I know that many other artists working in relative obscurity do the same. It is an unfortunate and all-too-common part of our process.
But the damaging aspect is to start a project, channeling and embodying that ephemeral madness from which the inspiration is borne, diving into creating something with it, and then holding on to it for days, weeks, years, or decades. We all know how it feels, and it’s awful.
It is, of course, a much broader concept, as each of us possesses abilities and the potential for genius in whatever field of interest we are drawn to. We couldn’t have roads, bridges, ships, computers, garden hoses, paper clips, paint brushes, guitars, or sauce pans without them. Embrace your uniqueness and regive.
Regiving is the release valve, the deliberate implementation of mere whimsy into practice and product to relieve the pressures of inactivity, insecurity, impatience, and fear. It is how we maintain biological, emotional, and spiritual health. It is our unique way of dancing with the stream of consciousness, in which answers and responses emerge from a higher Mind’s questions and requests.
It is we who set the limits, and our desires define the parameters and boundaries.
Solvitur ambulando