Monday, August 11, 2008

Generosity

This was a week of generosity.

Of giving
Of sharing
Of donating
Of thankfulness
Of being aware of how fortunate we are
Of being conscious of all that we can do to benefit the world
Of taking time out for others
Of trying to be accommodating
Of flexibility
Of forgiving and forgetting
Of letting things go
Of kindness
Of sacrifice
Of letting go
Of trying to give the benefit of the doubt
Of trying to put oneself in others' shoes
Of accepting mistakes
Of appreciating the benevolence of others
Of appreciating God's grace and bounty

This was a week of generosity.

2 comments:

Bright Butterfly said...

I was telling Amritha the following story last night, which is probably the most powerful experience I've had related to generosity.

When I was in high school I went to Baja California with a group of people from my church a few times to build houses in an impoverished community outside Tijuana. One year when we went we were pouring concrete in the rain and I hadn't brought a rain jacket. I began to get very cold and was shivering uncontrollably. The woman whose house we were working on invited me into her existing home to warm up. She invited me to sit down, gave me her best and warmest sweater, a cup of hot chocolate, and I watched cartoons in Spanish with her kids. I was so overwhelmed with gratitude. Even with my then rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, it was so clear that anything and everything she had to give she humbly offered up. I had never before encountered such generosity.

Perhaps generosity is not merely giving, but lies in giving all that you can, and doing so with a gladsome heart. And, clearly, generosity relates to all these other things you've mentioned as well.

Nikhil said...

that's a wonderful story - and ya, really brings out the quality of generosity that involves giving with all your heart, with abandon.