Gratitude with Grace

A friend of mine posted this on myspace saying that this is how she likes to view the world. It struck me that I agreed, and yet I have difficulty with parts of it.
Here is what she posted.

The Law of Giving (adapted from Deepak Chopra)
1. Wherever I go, and whoever I encounter, I will bring them a gift. The gift may be a compliment, a flower, or a prayer. Today, I will give something to everyone I come into contact with, and so I will begin the process of circulating joy, wealth and affluence in my life and in the lives of others.
2. Today I will gratefully receive all the gifts that life has to offer me. I will receive the gifts of nature: sunlight and the sound of birds singing, or spring showers. I will also be open to receiving from others, whether it be in the form of a material gift, smile, or a compliment.
3. I will make a commitment to keep wealth circulating in my life by giving and receiving life's most precious gifts: the gifts of caring, affection, appreciation, and love. Each time I meet someone, I will silently wish them happiness, joy, and laughter.

I do this, to a degree. I am the consumate gift giver. I am always giving someone something, a compliment, a smile, encouragement, a pencil, advice, an actual gift, whatever. I like to give things to the people around me.
What I don't do is receive. It isn't that the 'gifts' aren't offered. It's that I don't know how to take them. I cannot take a compliment. I don't know what to do with them. It has been pointed out to me before that I am more comfortable taking criticism than compliments. This is true. I know what to do with criticism. I evaluate it, and either dismiss it or act on it to make improvements or corrections. But with compliments, I can't do that. It's almost as though I don't feel worthy of them. They make me extremely uncomfortable. It isn't that my self esteem is so low that I think there is nothing in or of me to compliment. I know that there are things I do well and good parts of me. I just rarely feel that compliments are sincere. I guess it's more of an issue of trust. I don't trust many people, and as such, I don't trust that what they are telling me is true or well-intentioned. I usually feel as if there is an ulterior motive. Yes, I'm a jaded little bastard. My inability to simply trust that a compliment is nothing more than a compliment causes problems. Some people take it as arrogance or aloofness on my part, when really it's just my emotional and social retardation rearing its ugly little head. It's just one more thing I need to work on.
Oddly enough, having children has helped lessen my retardation just a touch. When I first had Victor, three years ago, people would tell me how adorable he was and I would just smile and stare, not sure how to respond, and afraid that agreeing with them might encourage them to try to keep talking to me. So retarded. I'm sure that all the little grandma types who ran into me that first year and gushed about my baby thought I was the consumate a-hole for the way I responded to their compliments. But over time, it's become easier to just say thank you when someone compliments my child (or children.) Maybe that's what I need to do when someone compliments me, just say thanks and move on instead of sitting there, red faced and mute, internally analyzing all of the possible motivations for the compliment. Yeah, that would be the sane thing for me to do. We'll see if it actually happens.
I want some continuity in my life. I want some peace. I think that the only way for those things to happen is for me to get over this issue I have, heal up some of the more jaded parts of my soul, and learn to receive the things I most like to give from the people in my life who are trying to give them to me, despite my best efforts to thwart them.