Service and Livelihood

Imagine a world in which one’s livelihood is divorced from one’s Service. This thought keeps coming to me. When what I give has no relationship with my needs (as in I provide you with a Service that you must pay for, otherwise I cannot pay my bills or eat), because those needs are already taken care of elsewhere, but the thing I have to give is coming from what we might call an unconditional place. I can, I want to and I have enough energy to give this Thing and you are allowed to receive it.

This is possible when we start accepting Life as a Gift. I receive the Gift without having to prove myself worthy of it (Livelihood) and I also give my Gift freely therefore (Service). I personally have noticed that I much prefer providing my services as Gifts rather than charging for them, perhaps this is why I keep coming back to this. But this also means I notice when I cannot “afford” giving – because I lack in energy, mostly – and so my system will tell me when to stop giving, a mechanism that doesn’t work if I have to give in order to get. Because this is how our whole economy is set up, we are used to being overworked, overachieving, overproducing, overstepping our natural needs for rest and recovery. The system I am proposing has a much different logic – get (freely), give (freely). It is based on the premise of trust rather than suspicion – and yes I can hear you thinking that it wouldn’t work because humans are naturally lazy and only looking out for themselves etc. – but I truly believe it is the system that has set us up to be like that, it isn’t part of our true nature.

What I am pondering at the moment, is if I can opt out of the old system and switch to the Gift/Trust system in tandem with others who are part of the old logic? I am interested in exploring whether it is possible somehow, to experiment with these news ways even though they haven’t been implemented amongst the larger community.

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