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Ryan Barry's avatar

Great piece, Tommy. Your message today is something I need a cyclical reminder of. For some reason, the world we live in today, as you say, makes it far too tempting to fall into a self-centered routine. I think everyone, or a lot of people, live this way--are working so hard--with the hope that they may eventually be able to divorce themselves via monetary abundance from worldy pressures and "live for others." But it seems, almost always, that no matter how much money they make, they almost never transition wholly to living the life they originally intended . . . And I think that's because they forget "it is a fool who puts off what he'd like to do now in hopes he can do it later." That by working to get wealthy first, they are forming habits--as in, becoming--of a person who serves themselves first and others second. That's not to say we should all relinquish our worldly belongings, but that we should make a habit nnow, today, of serving others.

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James Bailey's avatar

“being devoted to my own happiness which, strangely, makes me miserable and isolated within myself.”

Tommy, this brings to mind the subtle but important distinction of “being of service to ourselves” not in lieu of serving others, but so that we can serve others. Not so that our own happiness is the destination, or the goal - as you point out - it is a paradox that can lead to misery.

But we must also serve ourselves so that we can bring our fully nourished and expanded self to others.

For me, when the balance is out of whack, when I’m under-nourishing myself, I feel depleted at times. And when I’m over serving myself, something feels off - and I feel disconnected from Source.

I think the practice is awareness and continually maintaining an integrity between the external and internal focus of service through time.

This essay was an exquisite expression of that integrity - service to your readers, and I suspect, service to yourself as you wrote it. 👏

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