I’ve given much to a lot of people in my life.  Sometimes it’s money but usually it’s my attention.  I hope the other person has felt that in conversation I have only been with them.  In those moments the outside world doesn’t exist.

I like to think that one of my gifts to folks is offering them my time:

Let us linger here together

Feeling the words that want to be spoken

Feeling the warmth that wants to be shared

Finding what’s true

There’s no “hurry up”, no “on to the next”

It’s you and me

***

Here’s some lovely giving by Dan Clark’s dad. May he inspire all of us to be generous.

Once when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus.

Finally, there was only one family between us and the ticket counter. This family made a big impression on me. There were eight children, all probably under the age of twelve. You could tell they didn’t have a lot of money. Their clothes were not expensive, but they were clean. The children were well-behaved, all of them standing in line. One could sense they had never been to the circus before. It promised to be a highlight of their young lives.

The ticket lady asked the father how many tickets he wanted. He proudly responded, “Please let me buy eight children’s tickets and two adult tickets so I can take my family to the circus.”

The ticket lady quoted the price.

The father leaned a little closer and asked, “How much did you say?”

The ticket lady again quoted the price. The man didn’t have enough money.

How was he supposed to turn and tell his eight kids that he didn’t have enough money to take them to the circus?

Seeing what was going on, my dad put his hand into his pocket, pulled out a $20 bill and dropped it on the ground. My father reached down, picked up the bill, tapped the man on the shoulder and said, “Excuse me, sir, this fell out of your pocket.”

The man knew what was going on. He wasn’t begging for a handout but certainly appreciated the help in a desperate, heartbreaking, embarrassing situation.

He looked straight into my dad’s eyes, took my dad’s hand in both of his, squeezed tightly onto the $20 bill, and with his lip quivering, he replied, “Thank you, thank you, sir. This really means a lot to me and my family.”

My father and I went back to our car and drove home. We didn’t go to the circus that night, but we didn’t go without.

Lovely