As with so many insights in life, it was obvious in retrospect: it is our fear that limits our generosity.
It is fear that we will give away something that we may later need. But is that something so irreplaceable? Or, digging deeper, is that need really a need, or it is more of a want? Moreover, it is the potential of needing something, not even the actual certainty of it, that holds us back from following our innate, joyful, generous desire to share with others.
I wish this wisdom were mine, but I read it, and the truth of the
relationship between fear and generosity jumped out at me. I suddenly knew myself better.
It makes it easier to be generous when I know that I'm facing my fears, when I can calm my ego with the thought that I have never yet lacked what I truly needed. There is no real fear. There is just the thought of fear.
As Shakespeare said, 'Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so'.
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