What can I Gift Forward into the Steemit Community?

I was inspired to ask myself this question today when I read a post by @stellabelle called :
The Reason You Don't Understand Steemit: It's Like A Gift Economy Not A Commodity Economy

I am going to share a bit of a long post so if you are interested in helping me see how I can gift forward into the community (and not the article itself) please skip to the end and look for heading titled, Gifting Forward. 

Before I delve into some of my personal experience and journey into this topic, I'd like to share 'my' working definitions of these two terms, Gift Economy and Gift Consciousness...

A gift economy, gift culture, is a way of being where resources are not traded or sold, but rather given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future exchanges or rewards.

Gift consciousness is a way of being in which the ‘present’ moment is experienced & celebrated as the most empowering perspective on time and being. A way of being which aspires towards unconditional love for all life. A way of being in which the diversity and uniqueness of each being is acknowledged and supported, their ‘gifts’ are witnessed and nourished. These gifts are infinite and may include skills, resources, passions, intentions, values, personalities, styles, etc etc. A way of being which aspires to unconditional sharing and embodying synergistic co-creation and a gift economy.

That's me in the middle of the image, and to the right is my wife Andrea and to my left our great friend and co-founding steward, Chris.

The last 5 years of our lives has been an epic adventure in the Gift Economy and cultivating Gift Consciousness... this is no mere theory for us, or alternative paradigm, it's REALITY. 

Our website needs a major update & upgrade so I am going to borrow some from there to share today with the community. 

At Noomap, we don’t just theorise about the possibilities of a gift culture – we live and embody gifting every day. The seed team’s visionary stewardship holders have unconditionally gifted forward their fully-devoted time, energy, focus, skills, IP, and resources to bring the project into being across four years.  We have freely given all of our own money, personal savings and income and some of us have even given our homes!  We hub from place to place, sleeping in motels, on sofas, in rental cottages, in vans and on floors; we exchange skills for living expenses and provisions.  We share our existing resources between us and we give any income to the person in our team who most needs it.  We help each other out and look out for each other in whatever ways we can, knowing that by supporting each other, we support ourselves.  We are our own embryonic microcosmic ecosystem of a gifting culture, meaning we know this kind of world isn’t a theory, it’s a way of life that is entirely possible.

Some people believe we are rationalizing ‘poverty consciousness’ – we believe following your passions, gifting and living in the ‘right now’ is abundance whereas acquiescing to social conditioning, and sacrificing dreams for false security and comfort is actually poverty consciousness.  One of the greatest forms of poverty is a heart made destitute by a world that no longer knows how to love thy neighbour as thyself.

Although we have been offered investments that would make this path seemingly unnecessary, we have chosen to continue living the gift because a lot of the funds offered thus far are conditional and compromise the project’s vision.  People often only want a financial part of Noomap if they can significantly profit from its development or control the project’s direction, which generally includes controlling the people involved.  One of our core values at Noomap is creating structures that acknowledge the equality of every person’s gifts, whether the co-creator brings money, genius, connections or a shoulder to lean on.  Having freedom and control over our own creative impulses is essential to creating a culture where we are able to be ‘boss’ of ourselves and shed the tendency to control and be controlled.  Gifting Noomap is part of breaking the spiral of human creative oppression.<p>

Trusting in the Gifts of the Community

Of course, living the gift has only been possible because of the broader gift consciousness and generosity of the community around us who have equally given unconditionally to Noomap’s development.  Over the past 5 years of our journey, we have been supported technically, creatively and spiritually by our immediate community through gifting. We calculate, from a more traditional and limited financial lens, that we’ve likely shared over 3 million dollars of resources, support, and gifts. This spans the gamut from meals to accommodations, to money to work spaces, time, skills, support, healing, entertainment, travel, and wisdom, and life defining experiences. We have inspired others to gift into the project, which has allowed us to maintain a different energy, which transcends traditional business, investment, startups and monetary systems of value and exchange.

Andrea and I met and fell in love through the project and even experienced a spontaneous co-created wedding as a Gift at the UPLIFT Festival in 2014!!! We were even gifted a website (http://alovewedding.weebly.com/) to celebrate and remember the event!! 

Most importantly, we have been the recipients of a true abundance of unconditional love, inspiration and spirit. Noomap is a living experiment and successful testament to the New Story of a Gift Civilization in emergence. Many of us acknowledge the popular quote by Einstein that no problems can be solved within the same consciousness that created them; Noomap has been birthed from and continues to be co-created within a new gift consciousness.

Gifting Forward

When I think about my passions, my skills, my purpose and work in the world, a few things come to mind as to how I can offer to support the community and share some of my gifts... 

I love to network/connect/relate/sahre... and I am part of a web which has many amazing people, projects and communities in it. So, if you are looking to connect with a resonant resource, person, community, whether for personal or professional reasons.. hit me up! Let me know who or what I can try to connect you with and I will do my best! From crypto to tech, to healing, business, energy, new paradigm organization, etc etc.. I might just have a connection to make for you. 

I have a personal journey that involves being diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and surviving the 'system' to come out of the other side. I am happy to connect with you, your family and friends, or otherwise share my journey and what I have learned and still learning. And sometimes, people simply need someone who can listen deeply. 

I will post more on this subject but for now.. these are my first Gifts to offer into the Steemit community. 

Much <3 Bret