There’s an experienced difference if I do something“for free” or as “a gift” – even if we don’t notice it as the giver or the receiver.
Think of a cup of coffee.
A well-roasted coffee has a value expressed by the price tag on it – including all the resources, skills, work, and care that went it, and also the current economy it’s embedded in.
Now let’s say, I want to give a cup of coffee away without the exchange of money. Maybe because I have too much left at the end of the day, it is part of my business etiquette, or I just love to share good coffee.
Naming it “for free”, the value somehow gets stripped off it in that exact moment. And often – subconsciously – it will be handled as that. Something with a lower value.
As a gift, it keeps its value. I and you will look at it and handle it differently.
It gives us a chance for experiencing relationship in that moment.
If it is coffee, a loaf of bread, an online event, a counseling call, or the extra grass you leave on the field for wild and soil life.
It might lead to reciprocity. Or not. That’s not the point of the gift.
There is something that will resonate.
Coffee thoughts.