A Lesson in Generosity

When we became the victims of Typhoon Ondoy last year, we were forced to stay for a few days at my cousin's place in Fairview, Quezon City while we figured out what to do next. Unlike most of my relatives, this cousin of mine is the only one I know of who exhibited an entrepreneural bent, and was quite successful at it.

He has a clothing company he runs with his wife and their company supplies a lot of RTW (ready to wear) clothes to some big name brands. So you can say that while not extravagant, my cousin has quite a comfortable lifestyle for his family.

It was a relief to stay at their house after the devastation we went through just the previous day. Not many were as fortunate as we were. And then I found out that my cousin was not totally spared from the floods, because his factory was located in one of the areas that experienced flooding. A lot of inventory was lost and a lot of machines went under. The factory was their income-earner so needless to say, it was a big financial blow for him and his wife. And yet here they were, sheltering us, even if only for a few days.

But what really amazed me was what I saw a few days later. My cousin arrived at his house after being out shopping, and he was bringing in boxes and boxes of relief goods. Later, he and his family started segregating them into relief kits for distribution to some families affected by the flood.

To me that was really amazing. I'm sure that most, if not all, of us would like to think that we are generous people to some extent. Esoteric practitioners are even taught that we receive what we give. But how many of us would admit even to ourselves that in practice, we only give out what is from our excess? "Giving until it hurts" is fine as a concept unless one is brought into a situation that calls for it.

My cousin's generosity was really a lesson for me, one I was glad I had. This lesson has showed me that personal loss is no excuse not to help other people or not to be generous. Here was a guy who lost a lot, but could still find it within himself to give help to other people. He wasn't even an esoteric student, but he was living the teachings more faithfully than some long-time practitioners! And now I could understand why he was so blessed with prosperity. In fact, his business was able to bounce back from that loss.

Ever since that time, I have also tried to go beyond my comfort zone when it comes to giving and helping. All through life we've built around ourselves certain expectations about ourselves and other people, but I've learned that you constantly need to challenge those expectations if you want to really improve yourself. Sometimes it involves going exactly against "your nature."

I am again reminded of Mark 12:41-44, where the widow who offered all she had was considered to have given more than those who gave from their excess. Hopefully we remember to reflect on this any time we are faced with a situation that calls for giving help, especially when it's not convenient or is financially burdensome to do so.