All the seminars AJ Miller gives, he gives for free, although he will totally accept donations if he feels that the donation is coming from a loving space and that the donation is not a 'bribe'. After listening to many of his seminars and actually attending one of them in Greece this summer, I felt it was time to stop listening and start acting, for that's the only way to start 'living' the Divine Love Path, re my post about small steps to Big Actions.
Last weekend I was asked if I would hold a wheat grass stall at the Raw and Wild festival on a farm in my village. The festival had lots of mind, body, spirit type things going on plus lots of crafts and farming discussions e.c.t. So I agreed to have my stall there.
First I needed to grow the Wheat grass in trays to be able to juice or sell as full trays. I was told by the organiser that an estimated 40 trays of wheat grass would be needed. I first began the process by soaking the grains for 1 day in water. The grains I used were barley, rye and wheat. Next was to leave the grains to sprout for 2 days. After sprouting I sewed the grains into the 40 trays. Each tray had about a half inch of compost layered. On top of the compost I covered each tray with plenty of the mixed grains. The next step was to keep the trays in the dark for 2 days. When the 2 days were up, the trays were ready to be put into the green house to grow with the warmth and light. After 5 days growing in the green house, my trays were brimming with flowing 4 inch high grass, ready to be juiced. I could write another whole blog post about the health benefits of wheat grass, but this post is to share how after all my efforts of paying for the wheat grass with time and money... I then decided to 'give' it all away.
My stall was looking beautiful (My girlfriend Jessica help it look beautiful) and ready to rock and roll. 40 trays of wheat grass on display, 2 masticating juicers and shots glasses waiting to be filled. I must say that I had not originally thought to give the wheat grass away, it did cross my my mind, but the thought of making money was that little bit stronger. I calculated that I could probably sell one fluid Oz of juice for £2.50 and if people wanted to buy the whole tray to take away then I could sell that for £6. I started to like the figures when I added them up ... £6 x 40 trays = £240-£30 costs = £210 profit. Its not a huge amount of money, but a fun little way to top up my end of month wage I thought.
My friend Mike ( who is also learning and living the Divine Love Path) was helping me with the final touches before show time. Mike then suggested to me ' have you thought about giving it all away and just have a donations box on the table ?'. I told him that I had thought about it, but then I had also thought about what I could buy with the £210 profit. He grinned at me. Ten minutes later whilst sitting on the toilet, I thought 'Right, that's it, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna put love and freedom into action, and give everything away today.' It was a good job I was sitting on the toilet when I made that decision because now I was getting nervous and excited, and the layer of fear underneath was poking me saying 'yeah but what if ? 'and what about' ? 'you can't just give it away', ' what about all that time and money spent ?' 'what will people think ?' 'Do I not value myself ?', 'What's my motive ?' 'I could buy such an such with the profits' 'Crazy idea' 'I'm already skint' ' No wonder I never have lots of money, and now this idea will make things worse' ... you see ... that's fear for you, always blocking great ideas, love and freedom.
After getting off the toilet and settling back to my stall, Mike asked me If he could help me with anything else ... Yes, I smiled, can you make me a donations box whilst I finish setting up. We both felt the excitement build. Funny how I 'got' Mike to make the donations box, showing me I was still not truly fully comfortable with my idea, but I pushed on through with it ... small steps.
... SO what happened ? Never in my life would I have expected to happen what happened that day. The feelings I had were so liberating. I felt so powerful and passionate about what I was doing and the feeling of freedom was spreading around my stall. The reactions from people when I told them that everything was for free was really interesting and varied. My response to how different people reacted was such a valuable lesson to me. This experience was showing me were all my fears and behaviour patterns where hiding. Depending on the person, my emotional response and actions were different, sometimes in harmony with love and sometimes not.
Some people were totally accepting of receiving a free shot of wheat grass juice and it seemed normal for them to pop a few a coins into the box. Lots of people asked me "How much would you normally sell this stuff for so that I can have a guide of what to give". I gave them a guide price and then was reminded that by giving a guide price, I was essentially 'not giving it away anymore' which flagged up my fear of abundance and also at the same time I was playing into their emotions of 'them' feeling uncomfortable about having the free will. How many times do we make others feel 'comfortable' whilst making ourselves feel 'uncomfortable ?' One woman asked what can she buy with £1. We told her that she could have anything she wanted from shots of wheat grass to a whole tray because everything is free... "but I only have £1 " she nervously replied. "That's ok because its all free, you don't even need £1" Mike said... "but I only have £1" she shaked again ... "Its all for free" we smiled... this made her feel really uncomfortable. She then timidly asked for a 'small' shot of wheat grass (a shot of wheat grass is small to start with) and with a scared hand she placed her £1 in the donation box and shuffled away in a sad way. Wow, I thought ... a great lesson in seeing how someone is totally unable to accept a gift, she could have had the whole stall but she settled for a small shot. I felt a great loss of love in her life... I wondered if I am ever like that, and acknowledged on a different scale there are times when I am totally unable to receive gifts of love. One man came with confidence and ordered his shot and we had a great chat. He finished his drink and walked off with only a thank you ... 'Hey Mr,what about the donation' my feelings frowned... 'expecting' a donation is not loving or giving now is it Perry my heart then challenged me' ... humble pie was eating. To my surprise so many people came and loved the idea of the donation box. Children came with eyes wide open and we felt their delight as even they were able to have a drink without a common fear response of the parents saying "no, its too expensive and you have had enough today already". It felt really freeing for everybody, including me ... because it was for free there was none of that awkward bargaining feeling and the expectation barriers were down. It feels so amazing when somebody offers something without wanting anything in return, and this is the feeling that I am desiring to cultivate in my life... unconditional love.
I passed by the organiser who is a friend of mine and she quizzed me with her hands in the air "are you crazy, why are you giving your stuff away?, you could make good money" this shook me and knocked my confidence, I felt attacked and my desire for freedom was weakened ... huff puff, my law of attraction (I will write more about Law of attraction soon) is showing me more emotions I need to deal with. Why are people so freaked out by this idea I thought. At the end of the day, I approached her all excited and with total gratitude gave her the £15 for costs of having the stall. Once upon a time I would have hoped or tried to avoid paying by being nice. She apologised that I had to pay "It's for the farm" she said ... I felt she had an undertone of guilt in her voice because she had to charge me, and she was slightly embarrassed as she knew I'd given all my 40 trays of grass away. Oh well, she will have to feel those feelings, I'm not gonna try and make her feel comfortable and make myself feel uncomfortable, not this time ... at last, I felt progress in my soul.
I could give so many more examples from the day, but it feels like that is enough for now. I hope you have got the feeling of what I'm trying to express. When I was packing up there was another feeling brewing up inside me which I didn't see coming. That feeling was true gratitude. I was so grateful for all the day events. I was so grateful for the support that I had received from Mike and my girlfriend for helping me set up the whole thing. I was so grateful for the festival for asking me to be there. I was so grateful for having the courage to be able to give the opportunity for every single person to have the chance of trying wheat grass regardless of their financial situation. I felt blessed and full of abundance. This day gave me the faith that one day we will live in a free world and I was so proud to be apart of it.
p.s. In case you were wondering the stall took £104 cash and every tray was used. If I would have charged, maybe I would not of sold as much, leaving me having left overs. How many hearts did I help open ... God only Who knows ?
As I said before I like to use film clips to enhance my messages so here is the one today which is so inspiring Enjoy ...
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