The Joy of Giving

The memories we gather, the things we learn and the discoveries we make: Giving is full of marvels.

By Sree Sen Bhasin

I read a short story when I was very young. A boy was asked, “What is this thing called the joy of giving?” He didn’t know how to answer that. Later that night, he made a choice between two apples in the larder, one bigger than the other. He chose to give the bigger one to his brother. And he knew the meaning of that joy.

Giving is full of marvels, but not necessarily an act of conscious benevolence, intentional generosity or an attempt to do good. Giving can be profoundly beautiful without being deliberate. I love the slow joy of hope that fills me when I forgive myself for things I might have done wrong. When we release our fears to the greater wisdom of our innate ability to endure and carry on, we receive the joys of being free, being surprised and growing in ways we didn’t know before.

I spent many years setting up the offshore Indian division of an Austin-based software company. I had the privilege of working with and mentoring young girls, many who came from remote areas, girls with scant ideas about economic independence and self-reliance. Some, I became very close to. I saw them grow, break barriers and find self-worth in a whole new light. And finally, when they moved on to new lives and new ventures, I felt a joy that was quite unlike anything else I had ever experienced.

I witnessed strange and beautiful joys of giving when I was in India: the pure joy of a mother giving her baby a bath in a shallow village pond, green with algae. I watched her from a moving train and carried the glow of her joy in my head. I saw a man lovingly fed white bread dipped in milk to a litter of puppies, puppies born on the street and sheltered in a wooden crate under a portico. The rain shower only added to their joy.

When my daughter was little, I took her to the public library every week. She stood in the aisles, arms crossed, surrounded by printed letters and colorful spines, and became a lifelong fan of reading. Reading is a gift we pass on through generations. The joys are ripples that get bigger and bigger.

The joy of giving was always a part of my mother’s cooking. She gave herself to her friends and family in the elaborate dishes she cooked. While we ate, she watched our faces. When she saw our eyes crinkle at the deliciousness of the food, she smiled. Her eyes held the deepest joy I had ever seen.

My friend Karen gave me a gift that keeps giving. When her mother passed away, she gave me one of her mother’s cherished platters, one that I had given her mother years ago. She thought her mother would have liked me to have it. The joy we have is an unbroken circle of love.

To me, the joys of giving are the memories we gather, things we learn and the discoveries we make, sometimes within ourselves. Quite like life, those joys are unpredictable, enigmatic, far-reaching, commonplace and at the same time, profound.

Last Word is getting a makeover! Starting in 2016, Last Word will become I Am Austin Woman. The column will continue to feature a reader submission and appear in the magazine each month. February’s I Am Austin Woman topic will be “The last Time I Gave Someone a Compliment.” To be considered, email a 500-word submission by Jan. 1 to submissions@awmediainc.com.