Amazing Gifts--A Paragraph a Day

I got a great birthday present today.  It's a giraffe that's made out of beads.  It's about seven inches tall, and when you press the button below the base that it's standing on, it kind of collapses until you let go of the button, and which point it stands up straight once again.  It's special because it was given to my by a pair of twins who aren't even four years old yet, but who found it in their hearts to send a gift home for me with my wife, who works with them during the day.  I've met them a couple of times, and even helped my wife babysit them once, but I never expected that at their age, they would be interested in sending me a birthday present--and even give up one of their own possessions to do so.  It's kind of overwhelming in a way, but in a very, very good way.  They're very kind little kids, and it gives me a lot of hope to see two kids so young thinking about giving something to someone else instead of keeping it themselves.  They gave me something straight from their hearts, and it definitely touches me deeply in my own heart.  Perhaps this is what people mean when they say "heart to heart"?  I'm not sure of the original meaning of the expression, but it certainly works here.  And the only appropriate response to such an amazing display of generosity is gratitude, mixed with more than a bit of happiness when two very little kids find someone to be so important to them that they're willing to sacrifice their attachment to a special toy of this and pass it long to someone like me.  Two less-than-four-year-olds made my whole birthday brighter with something straight from their hearts, and I would be hard-hearted indeed not to acknowledge just how special that is!

A Generous Day--A Paragraph a Day

I'd like this day of mine to be a generous one.  When the day is over some hours from now, I'd like to look back on it and be able to think about times when I was generous to someone else.  Of course, if that's how I want the day to end, then it's important that I make a conscious effort to be generous for the next fourteen hours or so, isn't it?  I'm going to have a lot of opportunities to be generous, by sharing whatever I have, by sharing compliments and encouragement, even possibly by overlooking some fault or mistake of another person and fixing a problem myself.  At my school, sometimes being generous concerns picking up some trash in the cafeteria so that the janitor doesn't have to do so, and I make his job just a bit easier.  Of course, if I do so, I don't want to tell him that I did, for then my action is less about being generous and more about wanting thanks for my "generous" action.  I can be generous with my time by listening to someone who seems to need to talk--even if I had something to say that I thought was very important.  When all is said and done, of course, my listening is almost always more generous than my talking.  So can I do it?  Can I make this a generous day?  I certainly hope so, and now that I'm thinking about it, perhaps it will be easier for me to do so.  Wish me luck!

What Is Generous?--A Paragraph a Day

Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.

Albert Camus

I'd like to think that I'm a generous person, but I'm not sure that it's so, for I'm not quite sure what is truly generous.  I'm not sure how to define the word, and I'm not quite sure if what I believe to be generosity truly is what I think it is.  Sometimes we give for our own benefit, to make ourselves feel better or look good to others.  Is it truly generous when I give something to a thrift store that I don't need any more?  There are those who say that it's not really generous if I don't need the object to begin with, and I can see their point.  I would like to be able to give whatever someone else needs when they need it, no matter what the cost to me, but I honestly don't think that I'm at a point at which I can do so.  That's okay, I think--I'm not going to get angry at myself for not being as generous as I'd like to be, and as long as I keep working towards being more generous, I think I'm on the right track.  I probably need to eventually decide on what I think that a generous person truly is, and work my way towards becoming more like that person each day that I'm alive.