Here in my first blog post of 2011, which I’m writing at exactly 37 minutes into 2011, I’m going to tell you my Actual New Year’s Resolution. If you are one of my facebook friends (and if you’re not, I bet you wish you were), you may have noticed my two other resolutions – to throw away pens that don’t write, and to get rid of socks with holes.
Well, as important and potentially life-changing as those two resolutions will be for me, there’s another one which is actually the main one. It’s a Resolution of Generosity. Let me explain.
The past five years or so have been years of squeezing and smothering, and other adjectives for my life that I can’t think of right now. Because of career changes and eventually family and other relationship losses, somehow I lost the ability to be generous; to share things with other people. Sure, there are practical reasons why I hold back; well, one reason really – I just don’t have nearly the financial resources I had a few years ago.
I’m in a phase in life where I find myself thinking about things that “used to be;” the work I used to do, the marriage I used to have, the friends I used to have… and how I used to be a pretty generous person. Somehow in what I call the “five years of loss,” that generosity has disappeared and turned into a fight for survival.
So it’s time to change. Not because the circumstances of my life have suddenly gone back to what they were a few years ago, or even changed that much at all. But it’s time to change, because being generous with people with my time and skills and sometimes even $$ is something I can do no matter what the circumstances are. The scale may be a little different, but the attitude can be the same.
So I’m writing it down for all of you, for my vast reading audience, which is rapidly approaching double digits. There are many things I’d like to accomplish this year, some of which may ultimately appear on this blog. But I want to just narrow down to one main thing to resolve for 2011, and that’s to bring generosity back into my life. I’m watching for opportunities.
So generosity- oh yeah, and that thing with the pens and socks, too.
charley's blog 
I am so grateful for the person you are and are becoming.
Love, Your sis in Christ, G
From my POV, you’ve been generous all through the 5 years of loss. Generous of spirit, generous with prayers and wanting the best for your friends, distant though they may be.
Charley, I can certainly empathize with the squeezing and the smothering. I am most blessed in that Sheryl, in spite of all that we’ve gone through in the past few years, is still the soul of generosity. She inspires me to continue giving freely of my time, talents and treasure.