Lately I have been struggling to share.
I spend my whole life telling my three year old to “sharrreeeeeee, Maximus” but personally, I am struggling.
Recently I was having a day where I had to take deep breathe more than once and I remembered a little story that had a huge impact on me at the time.
I was in a small town in the middle of Thailand and we were running a creative festival for the children in a village. Most of the children had lost their parents to AIDS and it was an opportunity where their Aunts and Uncles, come yearly to visit their nieces and nephews. A special afternoon, one that I have never forgotten.
A little boy whose name was “Got” stole a little piece of my heart that week when we spent time with the children preparing for the concert together. He had just seen his Uncle for the first time in two years and had been given the Thai Baht equivalent of one Australian dollar. He ran off into the little village, with his pocket money, so excited because he rarely got given anything that was just his own.
About fifteen minutes later, I saw him running down this dusty road back to the group of friends, that were sitting with me on the side of the road. In his gorgeous little hand he was holding the most expensive ice cream he could buy with his precious coins. As he slowed to walk back towards the group of his friends, you could see all the eyes of the children who didn’t get anything from their family drop a little.
As Got re-joined our circle, he had the biggest smile you had ever seen. The next thing that happened is as one of my all time favourite memories of my trips to Thailand. He walked from child to child and gave each of them a lick of his ice cream.
He wasn’t asked to share. He knew what it felt like to be the child who doesn’t get what he wanted and sharing was just a natural part of their culture. The little that he had, he knew that he needed to share it with all of the kids who were his gang.
Enter my current reality. We have a tiny apartment, filled with lots of amazing, creative personalities and as a novice mum there are just some moments that I want my own space.
Recently I was pretty overwhelmed when I won a brand new Ipad air on facebook. I was seriously so excited. When it arrived, I remember thinking straight away, “I am not sharing this with anyone.”
As soon as this thought hit my brain, I remember thinking about this story of my little friend “Got”
It was like his little face, his big smile and his kind heart bombarded my soul.
Wisdom says that a generous heart will live a generous life.
Proverbs 11:25 The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.
I know the way I want to raise my kids is with a generous heart and life. It is one of the core values I hold dearly, but children follow what we do, not what we say.
So lately every time my little man comes to me and asks to share my food, my desk as I work, my ipad as I scroll, my bed in the middle of the night, I am trying to remember the beautiful lesson that my little friend Got showed me, that when you share, even when you don’t have very much, your life is deeply enriched.
That my friend is a lot easier to say, than do.
To read my next post in this series click here: She knows who is in her tribe
