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The Generosity Connection that Lifts Us Higher

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Community Raises People Up

At any moment, most of us are doing fine, but a few are feeling the hill’s too high or the burden’s too heavy. So those who can reach out to those who’ve lost the spirit.

At times like that, generous folks reach out to show us how to push through and climb up. It’s hard to know which reach will make a difference.
People get back on track and move forward, keeping their eye on the goal.
Sometimes on the way to that goal people get impatient, feel deprived, or forget the folks who helped.

Then someone generous of spirit stops long enough to say something like this

I wouldn’t have pushed through if you had not been there.

It’s a gift to hear that.

The generosity connection lifts us higher.

Tell someone …
you’re there to help.

Thank someone …
who’s been there for you.

I love you all.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
image source: sxc.hu gwyther77
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Generosity Is a State of Mind

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a_daisy

When I was 12, my six cousins moved one state south of Illinois. They didn’t want to leave the town where we were all growing up, as they prepared to go we started saying they were moving to the State of Misery (the fair state of Missouri). Then they settled in, made a new life, and I found myself in a new state — the State of Miss-ery.

Since that time, I’ve always been curious about “states of mind.”

This week, generosity has been the theme. People have given their time and their words to help bring attention to folks living in poverty.

Ever seen generosity?

It’s a child offering a flower because flowers make people smile. It’s grandfather picking up a granddaughter because holding her high is good for who she will be. It’s a teenager helping a stranger.

It’s giving unconditionally. It’s an offer of humanity with no strings inside. Generosity looks the same as doing our duty, but it feels like living up to who we are.

Generosity is a state of mind. It’s an open heart answering an unsent call.

Generosity doesn’t have to be an overt action.

It’s listening. It’s accepting. It’s taking time . . . giving time . . . taking time to give. Generosity is part of connection with any other human being. It’s valuing ourselves by valuing everyone around us.

Can you see how it’s generous to connect?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Generosity, Gratitude, Wisdom, and Fools

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Wise or Foolish . . . Which am I?

What a fool believes, the wise man has the power to reason away.
—Doobie Brothers

relationships button

My dad used to say, “A fool and his money are soon parted.” If time is money, I guess that counts for time too. So when generosity foolish?

Many are the occasions on which people ask, sometimes expect, us to help them. I’m speaking of naked requests from people we don’t know, asked as if we do volunteer work for them. I often wonder at this. I know we’re told it doesn’t hurt to ask. Yet, we’re also told to be generous first. I wonder why they haven’t heard that second part? It sure affects a first impression. Why don’t they see that a person’s time given to them is time that could be spent earning and enjoying family and friends?

Far fewer are the times when special individuals write to ask for help to accomplish a goal. They reach out with gratitude. Yes, the gratitude comes with the request. It’s only natural to respond with generosity. The fairness of this, I understand.

Some folks who call us a friend, love us like they “love” their favorite doctor. They value us while they’re feeling in need or unwell. Later they forget to say “thanks” in the way cured patients forget to pay hospital bills.

Other folks go out of their way to make sure that we know our generosity didn’t go unnoticed. These friends are always here with a smile and a kind word, even when they’re gone.

The fool in me believes that all generosity finds a way back eventually.
The wise person I am knows that could be a foolish view.

This week my son asked for advice. At the end of the call, he said a quiet, “thank you.”

The fool in me was grateful.
Gratitude is wise.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Change the World: A Small Generous Act that I Didn’t Expect

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Thank You Is a Better Response

Change the World!

It was coffee at Starbucks with friend that I don’t get to see often enough. How cool is that? I was adding milk to my coffee, pretending it was real cream. She reached over to get me a napkin and a stirrer. For a split second, I stiffened. I wanted to say, “i can do that!”

Then I caught myself. At least, I think I did.

This was a friend who was doing a kind thing for me. She wasn’t trying to make me feel “less.” She was showing I was “more” to her. I hope I said, “Thank you.”

“Thank you” is a better response than “I can do that!”

I almost ran over her small generous act by not seeing it, by being tied up in my independence and my history with two big brothers. That would have taken something from both of us.

That “I can do that!” feeling is easy to watch for. It usually comes in response to a small, generous act that I didn’t expect.

Be on the look out for the small, generous acts of others. People are doing them all around us every day.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

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If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.

Change the World!.

Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.