High on Happiness

Posts Tagged ‘Generosity’

Do you realize how hungry all of us are for a word of appreciation?  For those moments where we feel that we’re seen, that we’re noticed, that we’re real to someone?

There’s nothing like it.  Those little sparks of human connection are like honey to our souls.  They nourish us and make us feel, if only for a fleeting moment, more alive, as if we matter, as if we count for something.

What if, tomorrow morning when you woke up, you declared it Universal Appreciation Day?  What if you made it your goal to see something amazing in every human being you encountered?

What if you saw their beauty?  Their courage?  Their loneliness?  Their pain?  What if you noticed their skill?  Their laugh?  Their innate wisdom? Their manner?  What if you beamed little bolts of recognition to everybody?  Even strangers.  Even the ones who generally get on your nerves.  A word here, a gesture there, a touch, a smile.  It wouldn’t take much.

How do you think you would feel when the day was done?  How would it change your world?

As I walk through the gardens and woodlands, I cannot help but notice how generous nature is.  She seldom creates just one of something, or only a small sample.  Instead, she liberally strews her blessings with a broad sweep of her hand.

So we should be in our own giving, strewing our smiles and kindnesses generously, with an open and loving heart.

It takes so little, really, to lend a listening ear, to give someone a hug or a hearty pat on the shoulder, to encourage, or give worthy praise.  Yet how these little generosities sweeten life!

The gifts of kindness we give, the joy we share, the hospitality we offer, the time we spend easing the way for others enriches us as well as those to whom we give and is multiplied many times over in subtle ways we may never know.  Generosity connects us to each other; it expands us, allowing us to look beyond ourselves and to see the need of another and to know that we are so large that to help, or lift, or gladden is an easy and beautiful thing.

Generosity is a graciousness, rooted in the joy of extending ourselves out to another.  In giving, we find meaning and purpose.  We feel the worth of ourselves and the quiet satisfaction of knowing we made a difference, that we brought a beam of light into someone’s life.

Generosity isn’t something you can measure or weigh.  It’s not about how much, but how freely we give.  The forest floor gives forth many tiny treasures as readily as it gives the mighty oaks.  And the little gems it offers perfume the air with their gladness.

“We ourselves may feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean,” said Mother Teresa, “But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”