When I think of generosity, I imagine anonymous million dollar donations to charities that dig wells for poor nations, or maybe dedicating one's life to working with the homeless. Generosity always feels like this grand gesture that is far in the future and always out of reach. I've often thought that, "Maybe one day I'll have enough time and money to be generous."
When I am self-absorbed and consumed by my own struggles, imaging a generous act that is within my means seems impossible. Thankfully, generosity is always readily available. Generosity, even when the gestures are tiny, matters to all of us. It's a kind smile when you are down. It's holding the door for others. It's trying to understand when our gut instinct is to condemn. Generosity is woven into our day-to-day interactions, and generosity can become part of who you are.
Generosity is an act of giving. Even if you don't have much time or money to spare, what else can you give generously? You can give your kindness, appreciation, admiration, thoughts, feedback, respect, understanding, so many things, all of them with a spirit of generosity. By taking some time to reflect upon generosity, you will see that you are already generous, and the opportunities for generosity are innumerable.
Today, let's both be generous. And we can do it together.
The Chrome plugin SteemPlus has a "beneficiaries" feature for splitting rewards when publishing posts. I want to share the rewards of this post (and others in the future) with some of my consistent readers.
@Jusipassetti and @Spozone, 95% of today's post rewards go to each of you. I'd make it 100%, but SteemPlus doesn't allow that! Thank you for being so generous with your support, comments, and encouragement. I can count you two among my first "fans", if it isn't too early to say that I have fans!
To those of you reading: Can you resteem this post and help to spread it? We have the opportunity to be generous and help out a couple of great Steemians that always have something thoughtful to say. Or maybe you'll use the beneficiary feature in your posts to help out your followers too.
Now, go be generous. Generosity is always available to you.
Like this post? Please feel free to follow me!
Main image created in Canva; underline credit
Ah @chrismmcron thank you very much. It's an honour to be one of your first fans and I always enjoy reading what you have to say. You really are someone who I admire and remember feeling that way right in the beginning when I started reading your posts. All the best and I know that you will continue to grow and be successful in whatever path you choose to follow.
You're most welcome! I've always wanted to give more back to you when you read and comment on my posts, but I didn't have an upvote big enough to do it!
I am really happy to have you as a friend on Steemit. Again, so many times over, thank you for believing in my work. It means the world to me!
Oooh, that sounds like a great plugin. I'll have to check it out. How generous of you and what a great way to inspire and encourage others to be generous. Doing things for others always lifts my mood, although I have to admit that I definitely have times of being so stuck in my own head/circumstances that I become way too selfish with my thoughts and that is when I'm most unhappy!
Thanks for the reminder to get out of my own way!
Ugh! I can be the most selfish person when I am stuck in my own head. I totally get what you are saying.
My girlfriend calls a generous and others-including perspective "living outwardly". I really like that term. I often need reminders to focus on what I can give rather than what I can take.
Greetings, generous friend. Generosity is priceless from my point of view. It's not monetary, it's not winning and winning. It is giving and giving- For example, when you ride a transport and there is an older person, what do you do? When you go down the street and throw waste, there you stop being generous ?. I insist, generosity is a subvalue of love. Love your neighbor as yourself. I will follow you to support the consolidation of knowledge. We have to insentiate the intellectual generosity to be citizens of a world where the north is universal love.
regards
Thank you for your beautiful words. Have a great day filled with generosity and happiness!
Thank you for you for the recognition. I thoroughly enjoy your insights every morning on my way to work. Before I even got to your mention I left your post to copy this verse to send to you:
Malachi 3:10 KJV
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it .
Recent events in my life have caused a change of attitude in my life and the one change I am most grateful for is the spirit of giving, and how blessed I am to simply be able to give. I finally got it. It's like, don't you get it, I'm so "lucky" to actually have cash in my pocket to give away, to simply be able to work, or cast a vote, or push a few buttons and send a SBD to a plankton or some other small fish. Jesus himself said give and it will be added unto you, be careful in your dealings for you might be entertaining an angel in disguise. Love one another. The greatest commandment of all.....
It's a gift to give! I am happy that you found your way back here today. I always smile when I see your name in the comments. I hope you find many opportunities to be generous throughout the course of your day! And I hope many people return the favour too!
I gave you 100% upvote means I am generous and yeah, selfishness is prone in Steemit. I wish I have more money to invest so I can help many people here.
Follow-for-follow and vote-for-vote are really actually selfish acts. You don't vote or follow for someone else's benefit, you're doing it for yourself. So yes, people can be very selfish on Steemit.
Thanks for the support. It helps me to help my readers out!
Good read, I always see giving as a two-way street. because the giver receives a blissful heart
It's true! Pure altruism may not exist, but that isn't a bad thing. It's nice that we all get something out of it.
@chrismccron It's such an honor, if we can be the one that give, rather than the one that receive :)
It's an easy lesson to forget though!