A pirate friend of mine recently sent me a note:
“If a dove release symbolizes letting something go . . . then what would you do to symbolize receiving? I know I need to work on that. I have a hard time getting around to sending out invoices for my work. What’s beautiful in your world today?”
Every morning, take bread and put on it a little butter and a little salt. Take it and your drinking bowl, peeling off steam, out to the edge of your space – a balcony, the edge of the lawn in the snow — somewhere with a prospect, or where you can see the sun rising higher in the sky. Raise the bread slightly to the sun and grin, and eat it. Raise your mug to the sun, and grin, and drink. Stretch slightly the understood boundaries of the self.
You are taking in the salt on your tongue. You are taking in the heat on your palms. You are taking in the light on your face. You go in and send all the necessary invoices each day because receiving the income you have created is as receiving salt, warmth and light, and your work is as valuable as these.
So the answer to these two questions, is the same.