Some gleanings from the book Living the Generous Life—reflections on giving and receiving:
If basic human generosity is not fostered, a lack of generosity will quickly and deeply infect the workplace, family, and community. Fear, mistrust, isolation, and conflict grow quickly without the essential enzyme of generosity. And when we operate out of fear, we make bad choices. When we lose our inner compass, we forget how strong we are, or how wise. In this mood of alienation, we often misjudge the obstacles in our way and lose track of the resources we have to overcome them.
The outpouring of generosity following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, reveals how quickly people give when there is an obvious need and a simple way to be generous. (Emphasis added). In the eight months following 9-11, St. Paul’s Chapel at Ground Zero served as a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers at the World Trade Center site. There, volunteers worked twelve-hour shifts around the clock, serving meals, making beds, counseling, and praying with fire fighters, construction workers, police, and others. People volunteered a variety of skills and talents, including massage, chiropractic care, podiatry, counseling, and music, in an effort to aid their fellow citizens in a great time of need.
A sociological study of love and compassionate service at Ground Zero finds a variety of types of strengths experienced because of the exchange of loving behavior shared at this site: “the power of love to inspire an offering of service; the power of love to conquer the fear and horror of Ground Zero, enabling compassionate self-offering despite self-concerns; the power of love to create; the power of love to bless; the power of love to unite humanity with one another; the power of love to unite humanity with unlimited love; the power of love to enlighten; and the power of visionary love.”
[When analyzing stories of generosity] it becomes clear that generosity does not require a certain amount of money. Instead it seems to begin with some sense of having “enough.” Whenever we feel we have enough of something, we can look to see how we can share what we have.
When we are rooted in a deep sense of sufficiency, often our impulse is to be useful, to be kind, to give something away. We may even feel that as we give, something is being simultaniously given back to us.
Fear and dependency create scarcity in the giver, and lack of empowerment in the receiver.
It is useful to remember that the act of giving begins on the inside. The rhythm of honest kindness arises out of an honest heart. If we are to be truly kind, we must be truly awake to our motivations, our fears, our strengths, and our gifts. In other words, we must become the gift that we would give.
Parker Palmer says: “In the human world, abundance does not happen automatically. It is created when we have the sense to choose community, to come together to celebrate and share our common story. Whether the ‘scarce resource’ is money or love or power or words, the true law of life is that we generate more of whatever seems scarce by trusting its supply and passing it around.”
Being generous sometimes requires a leap of faith. In letting go of something by giving, you trust that you will somehow receive what you need in return. Love, energy, money, and kindness are intended to flow, and when you obstruct the outgoing flow, there can be no incoming flow.
When you hold tightly to what you treasure (perhaps out of fear or a sense of scarcity), your hand cannot receive even great gifts that may come you way. But when you open your hand and your heart, freely sharing what you have as well as what you don’t, you become ready and able to receive, and you may often find that your needs are met in unexpected ways.
–Steve McAlilly, President & CEO