I have been giving in the past so this idea was not new but giving consciously for 7 continuous days was definitely new and I am in! I have been volunteering for street kids with Jamghat for 2 years now and given gift pack spontaneously on Diwali to slum dwellers. My mother very often gives away bananas, sugar, cooks meals for the poor and the guards in our society where we live, ceiling fans to an underprivileged school etc.
Today was the first day of my week of gifting and I decided to give something precious that I have been hoarding for years. A very expensive Arabian perfume in a collector's bottle to my maid who just got married and is having problems - to brighten her day!
Oh I had giver's remorse! Maybe not this perfume as I dabbed a bit on my wrists in the morning and the fragrance stayed with me all day. Perhaps she will not know the value. Maybe I should have given something else and on an on. It was funny to watch my own mind clinging to something I had not even used for the past 4 years since it had been bought! But such angst when I had to give it away! :-)
Another interesting thing that happened to me is that I noticed many more people on the street that I could potentially give something to and a sort of barrier comes up - a shyness, a separateness about reaching out. What will they think. For example, I had to buy ice-cream for home and there was a boy standing at the shop. The thought crossed my mind to buy him some but then I thought, what would he think. I had to buy samosas for my mother as someone was coming home and I thought about buying a dozen samosas and giving them away to the kids I meet, but the thought passed...
The positive thing is that I am constantly scanning for opportunities to give and looking forward to the next days of self-observation and hopefully opening my heart further to reach out to others. Thank you creators of this initiative as this is a spiritual journey for me.
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