Can we give before we get?  Although this adage seems counterintuitive in our "modern" industrial age, an age in which "getting"--in every way--is lauded as one of our highest values, it is in fact the glue that holds everything together.  When we suppose that we must get before we give, that is, if we decide that before we can give, we must accumulate, we miss the point.  Why store up for a "rainy day" that may never come?  While we rightly need to attend to our physical needs, short and long term, we err when we imagine that we can, in the so-called "prime" of our lives, predict, accurately, our future and, subsequently, plan precisely for it.
     If our lives are to have any point, any point at all, we ought to live to give.  Only then will we capture the essence of existence:  it's a gift we receive, yes, yet it's a gift we are called to give away.  We are brief moments.  The universe is nearly forever.
     When we give, we echo and reflect the essence of what is.