In the 16th century Rabbi Isaac Luria started teaching about the beginnings of the universe. God withdrew itself making a space where there was nothing, therefore something could come into being. Drawing from itself it created urns which it filled with its essence. Unfortunately not all the pots were able to contain such an amount of divinity and so they shattered spilling that divinity in droplets out into the world which is how we were created.
Each of us is a piece of divinity. We come from Spirit, we are Spirit, and to Spirit we will return. The point of this life is not to serve others at the expense of ourselves, making ourselves last on the list, living in the desert of nothing left, scraping the dregs of life in order to survive to do the same again the next day. Each of us, first and foremost, is here to nurture and love and support that piece of divinity which is ourselves, that spark of life which is unique and a participant in the creation of the universe we live in. We are not receivers of the universe, we are essential building blocks of it for it is not something other than us, it is us and we are it.
To nurture ourselves, to honor our divinity and cause it to flourish we must first thrive as individuals. We must put ourselves first, not at the expense of others, but in order to fully be. If we are to serve others it should be that we have first filled ourselves to overflowing with life. Overflowing to such an extent that we will never be depleted. It is this overflowing, this never ending spill of ourselves which we have to give to others. Not our essential selves, but our radiance, our divinity, our eternal “Yes.” So begin to look at the world, not as a series of tasks, not as lessons to be learned or obstacles to overcome, but opportunities to fill yourself each day with life. If your daily round isn’t situated this way, then it’s time to make a change.