Day 69: Giving When You Have Nothing Yourself

The Sunday Los Angeles Times always has at least one story that leaves an impact on me. Whether it's a great sports story, or a passionate human interest profile or as too often a devastating and sad story about loss and despair. This morning's paper did not disappoint. I read an article about a woman who once was living the American Dream.

She was educated and trained as a social worker and had a good job that she excelled at. She was married and had three children she was raising in a home she owned. But is the case with so many people, her life unraveled and she now finds herself living in a run down boarding house with nine rooms and one bathroom in a rough neighborhood in Philadelphia. Her unemployment benefits have run out and there are no jobs to be had. She shares a bed with her 19 year old daughter, her 21 year old son sleeps on the floor of their one room "home". An older daughter is a mother herself and is barely surviving. The ex husband was abusive which is why she fled with her children.

After reading the story I felt so sad and also so lucky. For so many Americans their life is being held together so loosely and any change of events could mean losing their homes, jobs, and the life they have spent a lifetime building. Many of us feel as if we have a safety net to fall back on if a traumatic turn of events occurred. If we became ill, lost our job, our home, etc. But for many there is no safety net. Not from their own family and not from the government.

What really stood out for me about this woman and her story is that despite her terrible turn of events, she still found it in herself to attend church daily and to give. When the story was written she had some 3 dollars and change in her wallet. She wasn't sure how she would cover the rent, buy food, a bus pass, and continue searching for work, but she still gave to people she found even worse off then herself. How amazing that despite how low her life had fallen she still gave what she could to help people even worse off then herself. Talk about an act of unselfishness.

I wrote the other day about how self-absorbed and selfish people can be and believe me I know plenty of folks like this, but my faith in people is renewed when I read a story about a person with so little who gives so much. I applaud this woman for getting up daily and trying to crawl out of the hole that she is currently in. She doesn't feel sorry for herself, doesn't blame others. Instead she believes in her spiritual leader, and she has faith that her life will turn around for her family. And in the meantime, she continues to share what little she has.

We all could learn quite a bit from her giving.