WHAT SEPARATES PRIVILEGE FROM ENTITLEMENT IS GRATITUDE
“Acknowledging
the good that you already have in your life
is the foundation for all abundance.”
We need to know not only how to give, we also
need to know how to receive. Both have to come from a clean space in our hearts.
I think, we have undermined the significance
of the attitude involved with receiving.
A married young woman had come to visit her
mother late last evening. When she saw me inside my office, she opened the door.
“Hello sir, Merry Christmas,” she said as she came inside. I was delighted to
see this woman after a long time. As I was talking to her, I handed to her two
of my books and said warmly, “This is for you… You will love them.”
“Thank you so much sir,” the woman said excitedly
looking at the books she had just received, “I love your writings… They are so
simple yet so good.”
“I am glad to hear that,” I said, obviously
feeling good about what I was hearing from this woman.
Just then, her mother came inside. “Merry
Christmas sir,” she greeted, “This is for you, you will love it,” she pulled a
plum cake from her bag and tried to offer me.
That was the Christmas cake the daughter had
brought for her mother and the mother was offering it to me. “So sweet of you,
ma’am,” I thanked the mother, “But, that cake is for you from your loving
daughter… Please enjoy it. Your kind gesture is your gift to me… Thank you, ma’am.”
A few minutes earlier, a little school girl
from the building, too, did something simple yet priceless. Seeing me inside
the office, she got off her bicycle, parked it outside, plucked three-four
fresh leaves from a plant in the garden and came inside, all charged up… “Merry
Christmas sir… This is for you!”
“Thank you darling,” I pulled the little one
into my embrace!
I truly feel, that giving and receiving both need
to come from a clean space in our hearts. What spoils the beauty of receiving
is our mentality of ‘entitlement. So long as we receive through this mentality,
we will never ever be able to feel the value of what we receive… even if we are
gifted with a Mercedes Benz! This mentality makes us judgmental and critical…
It makes us read the motive behind those who give us… find fault in what we receive…
compare with what someone else would have given us… so on and so forth.
Last evening, the mother did not think twice
when she pulled out from her bag the plum cake given to her by her daughter...
I saw her affection in that gesture… not what she was trying to offer me for
Christmas… Similarly, when the little girl made her way inside my office to
offer fresh leaves, what was that I had to see in her gesture?
There is another mentality called ‘being
deserving’. The feeling of our healthy self-esteem comes from this attitude. Don’t
we often say, “It is my privilege”? Does this statement come from our arrogance
or critical mind, or does it come from our gratitude?
Brine Brown rightly said, “What separates
privilege from entitlement is gratitude.”
True. The lack of gratitude and the mentality
of ‘being entitled’, turn our hearts into bottomless pits… While, with an
attitude of gratitude, even a couple of fresh leaves can turn our hearts into
bountiful gardens!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Barkha Manik
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