Generosity, not what you think it is.

So you know that book I told you about (you can see here if you missed it), well I have some more amazing-ness to share with you from it.

When you think of generosity what do you think of? I think of giving. Either giving of my time, my money, things, stuff, etc. There's a total different definition of it though:

"Generosity... is a way of being in the world, not a way of giving in the world. It has little to do with giving gifts, and everything to do with giving space to others to be who they are."

Wow. I read that and that was the only thought in my mind.
Wow.

There are so many people in this world. So many different kinds of people. We look different, we speak different, we think different, we act different, we feel different.....you get the idea. By being generous {giving space to others to be who they are} we are being inclusive. Creating inclusion requires being generous.

"Most often {creating inclusion} consists of simply extending a hand. That's hard to do if you are grasping tightly to your rightness, your belief system, your superiority, your assumptions about others, your definition of normal."   (FYI, I am totally and completely included in the word "your")

Patti Digh, the author, writes about her daughter's favorite "goth" store in the mall, and the boy with dreadlocks and tattoos and big holes in his earlobes who works there and how, with "great kindness", he answers all of her "Uncool Parent Questions" like: "how do you get your earlobes to do that? what does vote for pedro mean? how do you eat with that big metal thing in your tongue?"

Then she says this, and I thought this was pretty amazing:

"He and I moved from difference to similarity, not by ignoring the differences, but by walking straight toward them and talking about them."

 How awesome would our world be, if instead of ignoring our differences and passing judgements about someone in our minds etc, we walked straight toward them and talked about them in a generous, inclusive way?

Generosity comes from opening ourselves to others. "We are often more generous to people we perceive to be like us. We must extend that generosity to those we think are unlike us."

Source

Good stuff.

Good good stuff.
What do you think?

 {thanks for stopping by!!!!}

 

Let's be fools together

I'm reading this amazing book along with my bestest of best friends {who happens to live in Washington for the moment} it's called "Life is a Verb" by Patti Digh. I HIGHLY recommend it.

HIGHLY.

I've been inspired over and over again as I read it, and I'm only on page 37! It's one of those books you want to read slow and write in and underline and highlight and carry a notebook with you so you can write down your thoughts. It's THAT good. {No, I'm not being paid to say any of this, my blog is pretty darn awesome but it's not THAT awesome} My bff {shout out to Beaner!} and I are actually keeping our own blog about it, so we can write our thoughts down and share them with each other...you know book club style.

A few of the highlights so far I'd love to share with you:

*To fully live, we must be present in the biggest way possible. This isn't about other people, it's not about changing the world in big ways, it's not even about doing huge things. It's about doing small things that "give you life, bring you joy, help you inhabit the stories of your days-and, by extension, help change the world and the lives of others around you"

*Change doesn't come to us when we sit and wait for it. Great change doesn't come with official endorsement. It's pointed out that people like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Picasso and SO MANY OTHERS didn't wait for permission and their actions brought about a lot of change, for  so.many.people. "Change occurs at the edges, without permission." We can't wait for the conditions to change before we MAKE a change, we'd be waiting far too long.

And lastly, before I bore you with my intense deep thoughts, a Japanese Proverb:

We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance.

Thanks for stopping by!