Equal and Opposite

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” ~ Sir Isaac Newton

I never used to understand this quote – it was too physics-y for me. But one day I was trying to explain how when we give love we receive love.

Of course, (give love = receive love) doesn’t seem to sync with this quote, right?

Wrong – it totally does. And throwing a ball taught me this cosmic truth.

If you are throwing a ball to a friend, they catch the ball, right? They catch it with the same velocity that you threw it. It’s not more forceful, and it’s not gentler. It’s the same velocity. It’s equal.

It’s opposite because if you threw the ball, they are catching it. They do the opposite of what you just did, with the same velocity.

When we give love, the reason we receive it with the same force is that because whatever we are giving is moving through us. Love, compassion, kindness, and anger, frustration, and hatred, all move through us. We experience it as it moves through us.

If you send love toward someone with the “velocity” of 10, you’ll feel it as a “10.” (Yes, I am just making up these numbers.)

If you send anger toward someone, who feels it? YOU do for sure. They may or may not, but you will experience every drop you’ve just sent, at whatever velocity you sent it.

We give it = we receive it. Because it moves through us. We’re not receiving it from another person – we are receiving the experience by sending out the experience.

We’re not receiving the opposite of what we send (send love does not equal receive hate); we are receiving the opposite action (giving = receiving).

To give love is to receive love, no matter where our love is directed. We may believe that we “feel” love because someone loves us back. But we can feel love and compassion for a person we’ve never met, and the love we feel is not dependent on their ability to return our love. Because love doesn’t come to us, it comes through us.

And the greater the velocity we send it out, the greater our experience of it.