Dear Friends,<\/p>\n
When it comes to generosity, we often have a limited sense of what generosity means – that it involves a monetary exchange or some grand act.<\/p>\n
In one of Mark Coleman’s\u00a0talks on generosity<\/a>, he says that our own presence and attention is a most powerful thing to give.<\/p>\n In that talk he tells the story of a woman who generously gave of her time and presence to a stranger she met at a laundromat. I found this story particularly inspiring. It’s worth reading in full here: One little clip from the story, which shows what a gift our presence can be:<\/p>\n You asked me for nothing and gave me something that I will carry with me until I leave this earth. You gave me acceptance, respect and treated me with a gentle regard for the person I was. …\u00a0No-one has ever been so kind without expecting something in return. I was always happy to give, but you gave me a gift that is priceless: the gift of acceptance and time…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There are many ways we can bring our presence to others. One of the things I’ve been trying lately is to leave my phone alone when I’m with someone. The ringer is off, and I either leave the phone in my pocket or upside down so I won’t see the light flashing. And yes, that urge to check for messages comes up, and I can notice that with curiosity:\u00a0what does it feel like in the body;\u00a0what else is going on? And then, just like any other mindfulness practice, I bring my focus back to the object of my meditation – the person I am with. It’s a practice – I’m certainly not perfect with this, but I am noticing a difference.<\/p>\n I’d like to suggest that as you continue to explore ways you express generosity in your day, see if you can expand your sense of what it means to be generous. Maybe try giving someone the gift of your presence today, if only for a few minutes.<\/p>\n With best wishes, Dear Friends, When it comes to generosity, we often have a limited sense of what generosity means – that it involves a monetary exchange or some grand act. In one of Mark Coleman’s\u00a0talks on generosity, he says that our own presence and attention is a most powerful thing to give. In that talk he tells the story of\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[98,36],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jan-2017","tag-generosity","tag-mark-coleman"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nhttps:\/\/whitepage4u.wordpress.com\/2012\/11\/28\/the-gift-of-acceptance-real-story\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAndrea<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"