"As long as sun and moon shall last
The generous one shallo never be empty."
__ Scots Gaelic saying (trans. CM)
True generosity flows from the one who is full to the one who is empty. With whatever gift we are full - whether it be a skill, a resource, even time and space themselves - we have the ability to dispense from our fullness. The truly generous one gives without stint, like Fionn mac Cumbail, of whome it was said:
"If only the brown leaf were gold the tree sheds when the year is old!
Silver, the foam upon the bay, Fionn would give it all away."
Where, then, are the limits of generosity? Generosity is limited by a patronizing attitude that condescends to another's need. It is curtailed by a misery spirit that gives only to 'the deserving' - a category7 that few seem to fit when it comes right down to it. Generosity can also be abused by receipients who do not reciprocate any kind of thanks. It does not matter if the reciprocated gift is of a different kind only that thankfulness is expressed in some measure. The law of hospitality is the law of return - a law that makes sense onloy when we regard all beings, all strangers, as potentially our family.
This is the curious paradox about giving from the depths of our gift: if we give, the giving wells up in us more strongly than ever like an ever-renewing fund of hospitable welcome from the source of life itself. As the planets light our world with unbegrudging light, illumining the good and the bad, the poor and the rich, the sick and the healthy, so the impetus of generosity is a well that does not discern to whom the draft is to be given; all may drink.
"With what are you full? How does generosity irrigate your life?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
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