To Be Generous

For the most part, you do know the higher road to take. You do know what is magnanimous and what is not. You are to be magnanimous, beloveds. You can even be magnanimous about others’ opinions. You don’t have to put your opinions before others’ opinions.

Often opinions are stated as facts. They are not facts. They are opinions. It is a fact, however, that you do have opinions, and you are convinced of their reliability for as long as you are. You do not always know what motivates you. You do not always know what patterns you have fallen into. Your thoughts are not always original. Most often they are not. Often they are like leaves that hang on a tree by a thin thread.

What does it mean that you are to take the high road? That means you are not selfish. That means you are unselfish.

Look at the few really happy people you know. They are not always thinking of themselves. They are thinking of others, and that is a great key to happiness. Thinking about yourself so much isn’t a good idea. It is not magnanimous.

You were born on Earth to serve. As you serve, there is less attention on yourself. As you serve, you spend less time thinking about yourself. As you serve, you even forget your importance for a while, and so you are blessed.

Have you not foraged for yourself and never minded about others? Have you not on occasion put a choice food in the refrigerator, saving it for yourself, not giving it to others? Have you not, furthermore, prissily, denied others yourself? Have you not also saved yourself in a fridge somewhere, waiting for special occasions or meritorious people that later you will pull yourself out for, for you see them as worthy? You have picked people out, and put others back in dark caverns of your heart.

Judgment, judgment, judgment.

Judgment hounds generosity and undercuts it. You measure your generosity. You ration it out. You hoard it. You undercut yourself, beloveds.

Ego chooses that you deny your heart to others. Ego gives you all kinds of reasons. It tells you that you are in need. It tells you that you have to look out for yourself. Ego tells you that you have to protect yourself. Ego tells you that others are out to take from you. It tells you that others are quick to take away from you and why should you be any different? Ego tells you that giving has to be your own prerogative. You have to think of it yourself, and you have to want to do it. Beloveds, you may well have to teach yourself to be generous, for the world has taught you not to be.

Through generosity, you are richer. You develop your spirit. Become a generous giver who thinks of the reasons why to give and not the reasons why not. Despite what the world and your ego have taught, there is no percentage in stiffening your heart.

And, now, here’s the hard part. Not only do you have to teach yourself how to give, you have to teach yourself how to give without receiving a payback. It is not giving when you think of the gratitude you will receive or other gifts you may receive in return. This is not giving, beloveds. This is haggling, beloveds, and it doesn’t bring you happiness. Counting on being paid back is making yourself a bill collector. A bill collector, of necessity, has a closed heart, a mathematical heart, a heart of debits, a mind that is working and a heart that recedes.

Be generous three times today. Let your generosity flow, and then forget about what you gave. It was a pittance.