The Power of Offering
We are all aggregators of what we bring into the world and what we experience once we get here. Some context:
I’m the only girl and the baby of the family. I have an older, older brother and a younger, older brother. They were 8 and 9 years old when I was a baby. . . . Yeah, I’m fiercely independent.
Besides that I’m second-generation American. My grandparents were all born in another country. . . . All around me, as I grew up, were messages that said, “Hard work never hurt anybody.”
I was shy and perceptive. . . . My social skills were a cross between a monkey and a Weimaraner puppy — intrusive, cute, and clumsy.
When I went to college, I was the only one who had carried my suitcase. That was the way the world worked. That world had worked pretty well for me.
That explains a lot; doesn’t it?
This morning a man I just met, Fred Zelders, reminded me of all of that with one sentence in his comment..
Wow! Hit my head. What the heck had I been thinking? I love to help people. Why shouldn’t they get a turn too?
What Fred sent me when we talked minutes later was simpler and more elegant than what I had been planning.
That simple offer — one sentence — changed my world. It saved me hours and gave me something so much better. AND Fred is no longer a stranger.
One sentence.
Thank you, Fred Zelders, for offering. Thank you for your generosity.
We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
______________
If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.
. Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.
Liz,
For myself, I was brought up in a “typical Asian” culture, where asking questions implicitly means “You are stupid and don’t know your stuff”… however, as I grew up, I too, learnt that asking the right questions are the key to get you where you want to be.
Now, I believe in “Ask, and you will be given!”, “Give, and you will receive”
🙂
Hi Kian Ann,
Yes, I understand what you are saying. In my case it was more that I never think to ask. There was no one around before . . . 🙂
I so believe in the Power WE. Sometimes I’m just slow on the uptake. 🙂
Hello dear. I’ve missed you! I can’t seem to get in to Open Mic…am I doing something wrong?
Hi, Liz, I’m also an only girl being that we’re only two siblings, and I have a brother. 🙂 I think generally only girls grow up to be shy. But we get confidence from our families and friends who always assure us that we can depend on them for anything. Like you, I also like helping people. I’ve done so endless times already. I shared this story in my post today, as I am touched by it. 🙂 Keep inspiring more people!
Hi Meikah Delid!
Thank you for taking the story home.
One of the things I so like about blogging is moments like this, when I find that a friend and I have something like this in common that we didn’t know a few minutes ago. It’s more than an event, and more than the way we were brought up. It’s a common way of seeing the world.
How much more can you feel that you’re not alone on the planet than to know a moment like that with another person?
Thank for giving me this to wake up to this morning. 🙂
ââ¬ÅAsk, and you will be given!ââ¬Â, ââ¬ÅGive, and you will receiveââ¬Â
Strange world, not? Last week we were talking about giving and how ‘easy’ that is.
Think we all forgot to mention the other side of the coin, how wonderful it can be to be asked to give something (if only a ‘hand’ ;-))
Hi Karin!
What a gift it is to see you every morning!
It is a strange world, and I think it’s our species that makes it so. 🙂
Learning to ask in sometimes my problems because I so cherish my independence — to a point where it works against my best efforts, as this story shows. 🙂
And greetings to you too!
Know where you’re coming from Liz – only girl in between two brothers (eldest was the shortest, youngest was the biggest, always brought confusion about, but that’s a different story all together ;-))
Guess whom I’m going to mention next who taught me about asking without loosing ones independency?
Hi Karin,
That last sentence brought an out-loud reaponse of surprise and laughter. Hmmmmmm.
Could you possibly be speaking of your now world-reknown, most-esteemed, ever-wise-and-kind mentor?
Nah, of course not 😉
(great, having a lunch meeting tomorrow with him, oh boy, do I have a lot of explaining to do when he finds out he’s world reknown now!)
Kidding besides, Richard did ‘educate’ me in asking for help. Asking when it was needed, not because it’s the easy way out (well, for some it is, but those people I don’t consider being independent anyway).
The time of ‘need’ differs per situation of course, but no one gets more independent by not being able to solve a real problem, others are standing by to give (here we go again) that helping hand; they are eager to help, they almost beg you to ask for it (but becuase they respect your independency they wait – impatiently – to be asked).
Hi Karin,
Others are standing by, right there, and we don’t see them. Every time we get off course it’s because we’re looking in the wrong direction. 🙂
(I’ll keep it a secret that he’s world reknown. You might have to do something about Mike, though.)
chuckle
(Anyone has an smiley icon for that one yet? Love the word – thanks Dawud)
Okay, What am I missing here? I’m clueless again, and, in the usual blogger synchronicity, I was just typing that word clueless on my writing blog when your comment came. 🙂
If only I had a mentor . . .
Sorry, sorry…
Rephrase: does anyone know of an inon (smiley type) that represents the word:
chuckle
(because LoL is not enough in this instance)
😉
As my friend, Nancy sayd, “Liz, sometimes you are so fast . . . and sometimes you are so slo0000w.”
Maybe I should have you for my mentor and he be my grandmentor. 🙂
imagine font 20
LOL
🙂