When we are volunteering, the quality of the outcome as the result of our activity is directly connected to the state of our being or our consciousness that our activity springs from.
The consciousness from which we offer our gift determines the ongoing nature of our efforts and the results that follow. When we plant a seed of love from a consciousness of love, there is a better chance that what we've planted will flourish and have long-standing impact and a ripple effect.
Who we choose to be, and taking action from a feeling tone of what we've chosen, makes all the difference in the experience of our action and the crop that we harvest. We are the soil and the gardener of our own field of possibility.
This agreement that we strike personally has everything to do with our relationship with others---how contribution, generosity, openness, and willingness can liberate us in relationship with ourselves and with one another.
A shift in awareness can move us from a life of survival to a life of contribution. When we name ourselves as a contribution, this produces a shift away from self-concerns and engages us in a relationship with others that is an arena for making a difference. It produces rewards of a deep and enduring kind.
Joseph Campbell put it this way: "When we are connected to something larger, at those moments we realize that we and the other are in fact one. Survival is the second law of life---and the first is that we are all one. These truths are revealed in moments of great gratitude, true inspiration, heart-felt joy, or heart-stopping awe."