How good are you with sharing your gifts with the world?
Are you generous with your talents, possessions and time? Or do you hold on tightly and hide everything?
Just imagine what it would be like to share more of you and your gifts with the world.
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. ~ Winston Churchill
Years ago, one of of my hobbies was collecting chess sets. As a teenager, I was fanatic about chess and spent many of my school days working on chess puzzles and beating hands down any challengers.
As an adult, other interests came along and instead of just playing the game, I started collecting unusual and exotic chess sets. Friends began to buy me chess sets from around the world and soon I had a quite a collection.
I proudly displayed most of these exquisite sets, from places as far away as Kenya and India.
Then one day due to a change in family circumstances, I moved home and no longer had the space to display them all.
So I put the myriad Queens and her armies into cardboard boxes and there they lay for a couple of years.
I kept on display in my lounge my favourite set, one made from soft stone and with huge three inch pieces.
One day whilst I was admiring these pieces, a thought came to me – why not let someone else have the same pleasure of having their own special chess sets?
The very next day I started to give away my stored chess sets amongst family and friends. They were wonderful gifts and it was fun watching their faces light up.
Soon they were all gone and it actually felt wonderful. I was surprised that I didn’t have any regrets about giving away my treasured collection and on the contrary it made me happy.
Now when I visit some of these friends, I see the chess sets on display – and also sometimes their children play with them.
The point of my story is this – we all have so many gifts to share with the world, but like my chess sets, we keep them locked up and hidden.
My heart’s desire is to find more opportunities to give myself away and teach my children the of service at the same time. ~ Liz Curtis Higgs
Of course I don’t just mean our physical goods, though we could all do much more sharing on that front too.
What the world needs today is more people sharing their true gifts. This could be as simple as helping someone repair their car, helping with their reading or as world changing as a Mandela or Gandhi.
Give, give, give—what is the point of haviing experience, knowledge or talent if I don’t give it away? ~ Isabel Allende
Imagine what a different world it would be if we all shared our gifts fully with the world?
It is interesting that you have published this post right now Arvind.
This is exactly what I’ve been experiencing in the past couple of weeks. I started talking to a few bloggers from the bootcamp via email and also formed closer relationships with the bloggers I love reading. I find that they ask me for assistance (can you imagine, just about 6 months ago I was the one crying out loud for that assistance :-)) in their emails and I find the biggest pleasure in sharing my knowledge with them. I learned a lot from Leo and I paid money for the knowledge I got but I feel very comfortable and happy giving this knowledge away to the people I hardly know.
This is a wonderful feeling!
After reading your post I have just one sad feeling. You were talking about chess with such an enthusiasm and it has always been the worst and most boring game for me 🙁 I loved all kinds of puzzles and thinking games but this… I guess chess is just not for everybody 🙂
Anastasiya, so often in life, you find just what you need at that time!
It’s wonderful how you are now able to share your blogging knowledge with others. It only took you a few months to become an expert:-)
As for chess, I bet that it if you gave it a chance, you would soon be addicted……
I love to share my time, my knowledge, enthusiasm and books! I’m baying books like crazy and giving to people who need them. 🙂
Maja, wonderful that you are giving away books like this – knowledge is the one thing that can rapidly transform people’s lives. Along with love off course.
As for enthusiasm, I read on Facebook yesterday an anecdotal story about how water turn to steam when its temperature goes from 99 degrees to 100 degrees centrigrade. And once it’s become steam it has the power to drive massive train engines.
Maja, in the same way, your enthusiam can transform the planet!
Arvind,
Once I gave away most of nice clothes and dvd collections to family and friends, I had spent so much money on it, yet I was not using it. Giving it away, felt so much freedom, I was surprised to feel that. You are right, giving away/sharing makes life more living!!
Zengirl, that’s the best thing about giving away things you no longer need – the sense of freedom!
On my recent trip to India, I gave away most of my clothes and a few other things I had taken specifically to give away. It felt wonderful:-)
Arvind, from the foot of Mount Fuji, thank you for your wonderful post. Yes, don’t hide your light under a bushel – shine. Don’t hoard – share. Your story of chess sets reminded me of the ancient Lewis chessmen (dug up from the shore on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland). Did you have one of these sets? My brother’s great joy for a time was fashioning handmade replicas and giving them as gifts to family and friends. Something significant opens inside us when we understand the joy of giving. We also become more aware and grateful of what we receive. When we are able to accept what life brings we learn to be generous givers. And more and more of us are recognizing that sharing our unique gifts with the world is an essential responsibility that we can accept with joy. I look forward to sharing and learning with you from this part of the world. Warm greetings from Japan – Catrien Ross.
Catrien, what a wonderful place in the world to be reading and writing! I just checked out your blog and where you are sounds like heaven on earth.
I didn’t have a replica of the ancient Lewis chess men but as most of the original pieces are exhibited in the British Museum, I shall be going to see them soon:-)
As you say, the joy of giving opens up something significant within us – and it acts as a reminder to us about just how much we have already been given by a great power, whatever one wishes to call that power (god, source, universe etc).
And indeed, sharing our unique gifts is an essential responsiblity – time for all of us to stop hiding our light under a bushel and time to shine our light:-)
I think the best part of your story is that you demonstrated how when you hoarded your gifts no one enjoyed them; they never got the attention they really deserved, but when you gave them away all of the sudden they were being enjoyed again. Not only that, but you got to spread your love of chess to new generations.
Justin, seeing the younger generation learning and playing chess was just about the best part of giving away the chess sets.
In the same way, when we all share our own unique gifts, ultimately it’s the young people to come after us who will benefit. It’s a win – win all around.
I believe we are meant to share our gifts to others. If we set aside our selfishness and see the beauty of sharing what we have on others, we will experience a feeling of connection, which is inherent in all of us. 🙂
Walter, you make a great point about feeling of connection being inherent in all of us – just thing how great we feel when we have helped someone out such as giving them directions.
We get this warm gooey feeling in our body and that’s what ultimately we all want – to make a contribution and feel good about it afterwards:-)
Arvind – I love your posts. So personal and wise. Giving away your chess sets created a huge amount of pleasure for many people. I always try to use the humble gifts I have to help others where I can. I find that the tighter we try to hold onto what we have, the easier it slips away. When we give graciously, we already have everything we need. Great stuff as always and thanks, my friend.
Phil
Thanks Phil for your kind words.
I find that by writing my posts as personal stories, it makes them more real and readers can connect and relate to what I have to say.
I feel I have a lot to say and offer the world, so this is indeed my way of sharing my own humble gift. As you say, we shouldn’t try and hold on to what we have, in which case I should be writing much more and spreading my words high and wide:-)
Let’s all share more of our gifts and bring huge amount of pleasure for many more people.
Wishing you all the best.
I’m going through a transition which gives me the perfect opportunity to pare down, minimize and give away. It’s wonderful!
Kaishik, it’s a wonderful feeling indeed to pare down and simplify your life.
Last weekend, I went through my collection of elephants and Ganeshes and am giving them away too now!