Breaking Bread
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We often think we're doing good when being helpful. And often we are. But at the same time, we are being remade by our giving.

Breaking Bread

The giver is used up in the giving
as rain evaporates in what it helps
to grow. It's human to fear this, but
we can no more resist it than the pit
can resist becoming fruit.

When you help me up, you absorb
part of my fall. But somehow it
doesn't make you fall.

This is the inoculation of love.

The giver is remade in the giving
the way wax is remade in every flame.

A Question to Walk With: Tell one story of a moment of giving that changed you.

For more poetry for the soul, click here.

For more by Mark Nepo, click here.

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