{"id":2261,"date":"2009-11-15T20:25:07","date_gmt":"2009-11-16T00:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/?p=2261"},"modified":"2009-11-15T20:30:15","modified_gmt":"2009-11-16T00:30:15","slug":"lessons-in-openhearted-abundance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/lessons-in-openhearted-abundance\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons in Openhearted Abundance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week my granddaughter called to show me her first lost tooth. After I had admired the cavity in her mouth, we had a little discussion about the afghan I\u2019m crocheting for her. \u201cYou should make one for my mother,\u201d Zoe said. \u201cShe likes pretty things, too.\u201d That\u2019s not the first time I\u2019ve heard Zoe wanting to share good things with the people in her life. In fact, generosity seems to come easily to her.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our chat continued and I asked how she had done at her garage sale the previous weekend. \u201cI made $39,\u201d she said and proceeded to tell me how she\u2019d spent it. Moments later, I learned that she had actually earned about twice that amount, but was using the rest of her proceeds for Christmas gifts. She\u2019d also considered donating a portion to Heifer<\/a>, a favorite organization of Zoe\u2019s mother and grandmother.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Acts of generosity seem to inspire other such actions.\u00a0A few years ago, my friend Maura announced, \u201cI\u2019m declaring this the Year of the Goat.\u201d I thought she was talking about the Chinese year, but she explained that her goal was to send a goat every month through Heifer International. I loved the idea and thought I might follow suit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A few weeks later, I received\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>World Ark<\/em><\/strong><\/span>,<\/em><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0the publication of Heifer, and read a letter to the editor that was as inspiring as anything I\u2019ve ever seen. It made me see that I was thinking too small. See what you think.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Heifer,<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

As you know, my name is Tessa Shiaer and I am from Augusta, Georgia. However, you may not know that I am 13 years old and I have just had my Bat Mitzvah. As a B\u2019nai Mitzvah, it is my duty to perform a mitzvah, or good deed, to show my coming of age.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I decided that my mitzvah project would be to donate a portion of my Bat Mitzvah money to Heifer. Then, after my Bat Mitzvah, I decided that I really wanted to give all of my Bat Mitzvah money to you, Heifer.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Now, I present to you the following: two water buffalo, two llamas, two goats, two sheep, two pigs, one trio of rabbits, three flocks of chicks, three flocks of ducks, three flocks of geese, two sets of honeybees, two sets of tree and of course last, but definitely not least, two heifers.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In all that is $3,000 that I got for my Bat Mitzvah and am now giving to you in a more wonderful form than checks or paper money. I am giving it to you in the form of life.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your mitzvah?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Last week my granddaughter called to show me her first lost tooth. After I had admired the cavity in her mouth, we had a little discussion about the afghan I\u2019m crocheting for her. \u201cYou should make one for my mother,\u201d Zoe said. \u201cShe likes pretty things, too.\u201d That\u2019s not the first time I\u2019ve heard…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[479],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-making-peace-with-money","jsn-master"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2261"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2272,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261\/revisions\/2272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}