Give Generously, Receive Generously…

This is one of life’s great secrets – and I’m going to share it with you, today!

To receive generosity from others, all you have to do is to give generously. That’s it. That’s the secret, and it truly is one of the great secrets of life. The secret is yours to share now, too.

The secret of generosity is something that is needed by our communities, right now. And you can begin, right now.

This morning at 8:05 AM the door bell rang. My husband and I were expecting a rep from an service company . Sure enough, the rep arrived at the appointed hour! I heard my husband ask the name of the young man who was going to set up a new system for us. I heard them exchange names. Later, I heard my husband ask the young man for the name of his supervisor. He wanted to call to let the company know what good and careful service we had received. A short time later, we decided against the service, and the company rep packed up the boxes we’d had in our front hall for a couple of weeks. Then he left.

As soon as he left, I heard my husband dialing the number of the supervisor. He left a message, mentioning the name of the young man who’d come to our place, and giving a positive report. My husband didn’t need to do that, but he did. I like that about him. He’s a generous guy.

He told me that he’s been learning that when you give generously, it comes back to you. But he did it just because it’s a simple thing and it feels good to be generous. Isn’t that enough?

I had a lot of energy this morning so I started to go through my closet, to finally take out some things I’ve been thinking about for awhile. I’m in the mood to get rid of having so many “things,” lately. I took 3 large paper bags filled with my stuff out to the car and drove directly to the American Cancer Society store in the neighborhood, where I parked my car at the curb and emptied my car of the bags full of stuff. I had a couple of loads, and I waited for a moment to get a receipt. When I came back out the door and onto the street, a meter attendant from the city was in his vehicle, idling right next to my car . I stopped. I looked at him. “You’re giving me a ticket?” I asked. “yes,” he nodded. “I was stopped here to donate,” I said. He got out of his car and I explained. “You were donating?” he asked. “Yes.”

He let me go without a ticket!

As I drove away, I was thinking about how magical and mysterious life can be. It all depends on our focus. My husband’s generosity seemed to have mysteriously rubbed off on others. It is a sunny beautiful day, and as I drove away, I was taken with the simple kindness of the ticket-giver.

Were the two events connected?  I don’t know that.  In one sense, I’m sure they were not, at all.  But as taken with generosity as I was, I took them to be connected.  It’s about perspective.

We all can be generous to those we know well and love. That’s easy, well… easier…! But generosity just for the sake of generosity is another thing. It’s a kind of magic.