Life is a constant interaction between different forces and different actors, in this interaction the dynamics of giving and receiving becomes a fundamental part, as fundamental must be the fact of taking care of our participation in this interaction so as not to seek outside ourselves a recognition that must be inside us.
We all know the story of the old man, the boy, and the donkey. An old man, a boy and a donkey were on a road and people first criticized going on foot when they had the donkey, then they criticized both of them on the donkey forcing the animal, then they criticized that the old man was on top while the child walked, then that the child was on top while the old man was on foot, the final moral is that you cannot please everyone and in that you can lose your own essence.
Although the moral of the previous story is very clear, that clarity seems to blur in everyday life where sometimes what guides our walk seems to be rather wanting to receive recognition, recognition that should rather be sought within.
I remember on one occasion the story that a religious told me (I suppose as a way of reflection rather than concrete reality). An order of nuns was anxiously seeking to have its founder recognized as a holy person. They pushed the process presenting everything necessary for this to happen and every day they went and prayed before the image of the founder asking for her intervention for the success of this task. The story ends in the sense that finally the recognition of the holiness of the founder was not granted, that is how the person in charge of the whole process appears in prayer before the image of its founder to inform her of this and they say (here comes the reflection) that the image made a movement and expressed a few words: it lifted its shoulders and all it said was "no way".
The reflection of the previous story turns in the sense that for the founder external recognition was something completely and totally secondary, her walk through life had been different and she was so complete, so full, so satisfied, that not obtaining recognition external really had no greater significance.
This does not mean that we become islands where we do not consider others, what it means is that we put the horses in front of the cart (as colloquially it is said), that is, that the order of ideas regarding priorities in our life is correct.
Think for a moment about all those people that you have sometimes tried to please, where are they? Some may still be in your life, but others, many others, will have already gone through it. So where was that effort to get your recognition? What's worse: what happens when the demands of others are contradictory not only between themselves but with yourself?
Clarity in life implies that one knows concretely what it is that one wishes, how one intends to achieve it, but, and more importantly, that one can respond to what? And for what? with what gives meaning to existence. And so, in that clarity, external recognition becomes secondary because the satisfaction of walking the chosen path makes it simply satisfying to walk it.
Life is full of challenges, challenges, struggles, insofar as our efforts are directed and motivated from and by ourselves, we can aspire to a full life where satisfaction for personal fulfillment is our main recognition.
