Generosity
“I’m kind of addicted to the feeling of giving, knowing that I’m doing something good for someone else.”
Practice
Figure out how much you really need to live on. Got more? Find people and organizations in your community and be generous!
Leave space in your life to give your time. Who could use some of your time? Give it freely.
Watch and listen as you go about your day with an open heart and open hands. Opportunities for generosity will happen. Slip some cash in your wallet and be ready to give.
Remembering my grandfather, I think first of his generosity. As young boys, my brother and I waited all year to see his giant Chrysler station wagon (wood paneled), loaded with Christmas gifts, pull up in the driveway. After becoming a young widower, giving gifts made him happy. He loved to find treasures for us at FAO Schwarz and then watch us enjoy them. Gifts for our mom were fancy, pretty stuff that she put up high, out of our reach. Pop gave good gifts.
My father was generous too. But his generosity was in a philanthropic, quid pro quo way. He’d give as a strategy, to the opera for a board seat or the hospital for the contacts. In the end, his giving built a university building with his name on it, for posterity.
I hope to be quietly generous, inconspicuously making a difference for strangers and for people I love. Kay and I like to find opportunities for more personal generosity that impacts individual people. It is someone you know, or know about, who needs something you can provide. Who’s that person in your life? Perhaps your everyday barista, your kids’ school bus driver, or an elderly neighbor. I’ve seen that through personal generosity, we can be a small part of making our community better.
I like being a small part of a big thing. There’s a project called Care Portal (careportal.org) that lets you know about small needs like a single mom who lacks school supply money, car seats, or a mattress for her toddler. You can point and click and fund to help a grandmother raising 3 teens with special needs. It’s local, it’s easy, and it’s powerful.
Last summer at the McDonald’s drive-up window, I asked the teenage server what she was saving up for. I thought maybe college or an awesome prom. But she told me the story of her sister in Australia, who she hadn’t seen in years. She received an unsolicited donation from me. Not enough for a plane ticket to Australia, but I was able to be part of the story of their reunion. Even your local fast-food restaurant is a sacred place to express generosity.
Generosity can be described as a sacrificial gift that tells someone they are seen and valued. It’s pretty simple. But sometimes, probably out of fear, I resist generosity. I balk at the ubiquitous requests for tips or the guy with the sign at the intersection. Still a work in progress, I want to grow more generous. What’s surprising is the real, deep joy that comes with giving.
Jesus told a story about a successful business guy who loved to make more, build more, and store it all up. But then the man died suddenly, and all he had was lost. Jesus said the better way was to be rich toward God. That’s how I want to be, rich toward God, by being generous to my community and neighbor.
David and Kay Morrison live in the Homestead neighborhood in Centennial. David is a Partner at a financial services company, Prosperion Financial, in Greenwood Village. Kay is an abstract artist and freelance pastor. David and Kay just celebrated their 40th anniversary, have 4 adult kids, 3 bonus kids (their spouses), and 5 grandkids they adore.
