A Letter to Neale

Reader question:

Dear Neale... You write a lot in your books about giving, giving, giving to others. But when do I get something in return? It seems that all I do is GIVE. And frankly, I’m getting a little angry. Or at least, frustrated. Because I never get anything in return. What’s up here? And how do I get past this negativity that’s starting to come over me? Thanks,

Carolyn M., Boise, Idaho.

Neale Responds:

My dear Carolyn: Thank you for your letter, and for your honesty. I understand how you could feel that way. I did, too, for a period in my life. I’m going to guess that we’ve all gone through a moment or two such as this in our lives. But Conversations with God cleared all that up for me when I was told: “Your life is not about you. It is about everyone whose life you touch, and how you touch it.”

Everything changed in my reality and in my experience when I heard that little pronouncement from God. It was like a psychological Lazy Susan. I suddenly just turned around the emotional axis of my life, and found a new way to feel about what was happening in my day-to-day encounters. I realized that I came here (to Earth, I mean) to give something, not to receive something—and that this is why I was coming to every moment.

Conversations with God also told me something else of great value. It told me that I did not need anything from anyone emotionally or psychologically in order to be totally happy, and that I only thought that I did. When I stepped fully into this awareness I stopped looking for “what’s in it for me” in my interactions (and in my life, for that matter), and began looking at “what’s in it for others?”

And now, here is the irony: When I did that, I experienced that there was more “in it for me” than I ever imagined, because the feeling of self-fulfillment was enormous. I never felt better about being alive in all my years on the planet. So it turns out that as you give, so shall you receive. Not by getting equal “stuff” in return, but by getting, at last, a full and true and vivid experience of Who You Really Are.

And that’s the only reason you came here. It is the purpose of life itself. Life is more than a sequence of events in which we take part, leading to whatever we imagine to be a desired outcome, both short and long-term. Life is a spiritual journey, upon which our Soul has embarked, using the Body and the Mind as tools with which to produce the expression of Divinity in the Realm of Physicality.

There is nothing else going on here. Everything else is stuff we are “making up,” telling ourselves that it is what life is all about, when all we are doing is creating a context within which this Larger Purpose may be served.

This is what I have learned in my Conversations with God, Carolyn. I offer it to you from the For What It’s Worth Dept.

Love...