It has felt so good to know that I’m being of service to something greater than myself: that I’m giving my best to the people I care about, to the work that is mine to do in the world, to the good of the human family and creation. In other instances, I’ve been the recipient of the largesse of human kindness, or I’ve beheld the beauty of the natural world, freely given—and in it all, I’ve been pulled out of my small, cramped, ego-self into the gift of a greater, more beautiful, more blessed belonging. That’s it, really. In the end, the greatest pleasure isn’t having all our ego-needs met, but instead being drawn out of our ego into a wider world of belonging. We may work to cultivate this kind of self-transcendence, but it is always and ultimately a gift: a gift from others, from brother sun and sister moon and the rest of the created world, and in and through all of these, from the Creator and Giver of all gifts.
