During the pandemic, I decided to donate blood. I had been home for months, so donating was a good opportunity to leave the house. There were no extra perks attached.

8 weeks later, I donated again. And again. And again. I’ve donated 2 gallons of blood now.

I don’t meet the people who receive my blood, but the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center is good about communicating my impact on people who live near me who—either through trauma or long-term needs—depend on my A+ blood.

I hold a deep conviction that none of this is ours. I mean, like, nothing belongs to us.

But this blood is mine! No, it isn’t. The healthier I am, the healthier the blood, the more I can give it to those who need it. The more oxygen-rich I maintain it, and the more efficiently my heart pumps it, then the more I can work and serve the Kingdom with it.

The extent to which I believe that none of this is ours goes deeper.

Is our education ours? Our name is on the degree. We did the work. We “received” grades. But no, our education is not ours. That education is meant to serve this world. All of what we learn is for everyone else. If we cheat in school, we deprive the world of education, not just ourselves.

What about our memories? We experienced them. They are in MY brain. MY recollection. But no, our memories are not ours. Our memories, which we process or don’t, which we draw wisdom from or don’t, which we learn to incorporate their lessons into the self or don’t. Those memories belong to others. When we suppress our memories and refuse to learn from them, we become intolerable to others because we deprive them of what is rightfully theirs.

Our money. Our careers. Our families. Our land. The things in our purses and pockets. None of it: ours.

The air we inhale and hold in our lungs will all return to others because we are connected through divine respiration. The breath of life is in us. We will and do give it back.

None of it is ours for the keeping.

So this is why I donate blood. I pour it out as I have been taught.

You may think that you do not have a lot of resources, but chances are you have a life of abundance. If you have time and you have life, then the world is waiting for you to deliver it back. Even when you have no money or blood to give, you can always give yourself.