“Pay it forward” means to repay the benefits of what we’ve received to someone other than the source of those gifts. Raising children is a quintessential illustration of paying forward.

We give our love, care and earned wisdom to the next generation so they may give to those whose lives they touch. We are giving to the children we care for and we are giving to our communities, society, humanity.

We have what we have to give because of what we have received. We will continue to give and we will continue to receive.

How our energy is organized around receiving matters. But we’re not taught to consider this a worthy practice and many of us resist receiving, in some ways we’re familiar with and some that are invisible to us.

If you’d like to begin to cultivate your own ability to receive, regularly pause to take in your environment through your senses. Receive compliments, favors and gifts with simplicity (and feel the feelings that come when you do).

The (extremely important and resource and time consuming) process of raising children can be a little more easeful when we remember that we’re engaged in a cycle of reciprocity with generations before and after us, with our communities and humanity as a whole.