The Gift of Gebo: Learning to Be in Relationship with All Things

Gebo: the rune of gifts, exchanges, and sacrifices.

This morning I gave my physical body a gift: I went for a run.⁣

I could have spent the first twenty minutes of my morning in infinite other ways: sleeping in, reading, getting a head start on work, checking social media, offering to the gods, sitting outside, watching TV.⁣

But instead, I chose to give my time and energy to my physical body — to my heart, my lungs, my legs. ⁣

This gift of my time and energy was a sacrifice at the altar of my body, given in trust and hope of receiving its blessing — that with repeated gifts it will become stronger, thereby allowing me to feel good about my body, to go on more strenuous adventures, to live a longer and healthier life.⁣

This is what studying Gebo has brought me so far: the realization that I am in relationship with everyone and everything around me — including my own body and mind — and that I am constantly exchanging time and energy with these other beings, whether I am consciously aware of it or not.⁣

I am in relationship with my husband, my family and my friends, but also with my body, my mind, my work, my home, the land, my hobbies, social media, the news, the foods I eat. These relationships are defined by what I give to them, and what they give back to me.⁣

It has also reaffirmed that time and energy are indeed the most precious of all gifts. As we choose where to spend our time and energy, we weave the stories of our lives.⁣

The more time and energy I give to exercise, the fitter I become; the more time and energy I give to my loved ones, the stronger our relationships become; the more time and energy I give to cleaning my house, the cleaner my house is; the more time and energy I give to creating, the more I am able to create. ⁣

The more time and energy I give to anything at all, the more that thing gives back to me.⁣

The difficult part, of course, is deciding what is most worthy of these precious, limited gifts of time and energy. ⁣

Gebo reminds me that everything is an exchange, that gifts are reciprocal in nature, and that the answer to this difficult question of where to place my gifts lies in what I most hope to receive in return.