Nobody has ever become poor by giving.
I am currently moving house. Selling a lot of the so much I’ve accumulated but mostly going to give away EVERYTHING. Yep, that’s right. I’ll leave here, walk out the door with just the stack of notebooks and books I have here. My bike. Some clothes and a phone. That’s all.
In the process, I don’t feel “at a loss”, rather I feel “filled”. The more I give away, the more I am. It’s contradictory but it is true.
My wife can’t understand me. I’m always giving money on the street. Leaving large tips. I’m an easy touch. For me, why just give a few coins (not knocking that)? Rather, it is much better to give something substantial, something the person can use right then and there, to get ahead. Even if it is just a recognition through your gift that their existence has worth.
Last week, I sold my trusted Suzuki Grand Vitara. Undersold it, but hey, I liked the guy who was there helping his parents buy it. They came all the way from Boaco, a long drive. So I just sold it for less. Driving to the lawyers to deliver it, I remembered a large bag of coins in the glove compartment. I stopped at the regular place where the squeegee kids are and handed them the whole heavy bag of coins. What the hell. I keep what I give. I looked at them in the side-view mirror as I drove away and they were dancing around in joy. Made the kids’ day. Made mine too. I keep what I give.
We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.
In my job, I’m always going the extra mile. My moniker is “the hardest working guy in English language teaching”. People often ask me - “How do you do so much?”. I just reply, “I keep what I give.” Teaching is a form of giving and it energizes me. I got so much more from teaching than I ever gave (unfortunately, not talking $).
In our daily world, we need to give more. Learn about the power of giving not for others but for the impact it has on our own soul.
I remember one day in my life, years ago, downtown Kyiv, cold winter. I gave an old lady on the street, a hot coffee. She turned to me and said, in Russian, “It doesn’t cost a nickle to be kind.” I’ve always remembered that.
“The things you take for granted, other people are praying for.”
For me, one of the things I’m saddened by is how life has gotten so much tougher, rougher, and harder for so many. It’s changed in my lifetime. There is little safety net in our societies anymore. We’ve lost the narrative as a country, a people, a community, somewhere. We’ve all become much more selfish, rigid, turning away from the poor. Or we give through online donations, anonymously, as if we feel guilty and just want to get it over with.
In my travels around America, I see endless encampments of the homeless, usually hidden away from the gleaming steel buildings, along rivers, gullies, and streams. Out of sight, out of mind. Nobody gives even a damn anymore. And then there are garages, acres of storage facilities filled with “stuff”. Useless stuff mostly that has no value other than the fact that it fills our ego, it assuages our mind, to know we have so much. Yet, having so much hinders us in being. To have or to be?
What I’m saying in this rambling post is that we need to think more about giving. There is always something we can give - even if it is only a smile, a hug, a pat on the bat. Do what one can. I think of this homeless lady, Monica. She lost her legs, living on the street. Yet, she still helps others. As she says, “If I can help, I will help.”
Again, you keep what you give.
Ugly Weather. Winter Room.
“When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got much to give.”
Life is a dance
in an empty pair of shoes
while the memories in
the gas fed room
loom and crowd and zoom.
The universe is collapsing.
Photographs flap and float about.
All the geese are frozen in the pond.
All the fish breathless, quiet on the lawn.
The wind whistles through the window’s clear cracks.
You dream an axe handle, dreaming of the axe.
Mixing all
wide eyed without sleep
the tension of the saw
destroying more
while outside sad snow falls.
You understand
there is,
nothing you can keep.
You can only give, live.