The Intentionality of Giving

Once the snow is gone, the yard work begins.

While it should not amaze me, it still does...the intentionality of giving is powerful. I know this and believe it to my core, but every now and then, I slip away from believing and forget. And then something like today happens and I am reminded that the intentionality of giving is POWERFUL!

My house is surrounded by huge trees, some of which drop over 100 bags of leaves each every fall. When the previous owner of my ome thought about removing the trees because she was too frail to rake the leaves that fell, the neighborhood rallied and agreed to rake her leaves for her. Unfortunately, that offer did not go with the house. year after year, our family has raked and removed leaves and branches and sometimes trees as they fell.

The City of Austin has a great leaf recycling option and so the leaves get reused as mulch, but the branches and trees pose a much more complex problem. At this point I could have a bonfire every night for a year and still have a woodpile that would be the envy of any Survivor contestant. This winter has been hard on our trees and they are dropping branches faster than I can keep up. Our chain saw is being repaired and so there is a lot of manual labor that needs to go into cleaning up the yard each day.

One of the many piles of wood in my stockpile

Just yesterday, I piled up all of the branches that had been revealed as the snow melted and I had quite a pile. Stacking up the wood I said to my husband, "wouldn't it be great if the kids from the apartment next door wanted to have a bonfire - I would have them come over and take this entire pile." His response was not helpful, something like "do they want to have a fire?" and I got discouraged. He was right of course, who was I to impose my will on someone else. So I resigned myself to having to chop up all of that wood and add it to my stockpile. It actually made me really sad. I love watching the kids in the apartments next door playing outside and I especially love bonfires, so thinking that I couldn't do anything to make it happen made me really really sad. But I secretly hoped...

It is a beautiful day today and I have resigned myself to cleaning up the yard. And, wouldn't you know it - as we pulled in the driveway from grocery shopping there was a family circled around the fire pit next door watching the smoke from the dank wet 3 pieces of wood they were trying to light. Stan hadn't even stopped the car and I was out the door running down to the family to share with them my gift.

These trees continually give us plenty of fuel for family bonfires

The family is four boys and a mom who had just moved in after losing their house and their shouts of pure joy as they ran over to my yard and gathered as much wood as they could carry and then came back again - was beautiful. Not only did they completely clean up my yard and filled their firepit and stockpile with loads of nice dry wood, but they began inviting their friends and neighbors to come and gather and enjoy the bounty.

I just want to cry, I am so moved and inspired. It is good to be reminded of the power of giving and the increased impact of intention.

For more about giving intentionally and One Hundred Days of Giving and let the giving journey begin.