Silent Giving

There are several rivers in Jamaica, but some are more inviting and popular than others. There are the slow-moving rivers such as the Black River, St. Elizabeth and the Rio Cobre, St. Catherine… ignored and forgotten rivers. Then there is the vibrancy of the Y’s River, St. Elizabeth and Dunn’s River, St. Ann…both attract large numbers of human visitors. 

We are magnetized by vibrancy, action, speed, and movements. They excite us and give us an adrenaline rush. Anything or anybody that’s slow-moving bores us and is unappealing. Hence, we cling to youthfulness and abhor aging. 

This perspective shapes our understanding of giving. Giving is physical, loud, external, and must be witnessed by the naked eye. This perception influences our response to life. Giving is like bees relentlessly moving from flower to flower with minimal rest.
The benefits of giving must be immediate and obvious – the nectar. This perception of giving becomes extremely difficult when we age, when our physical mobility weakens or diminishes, and we are unable to buzz around. It triggers feelings of inadequacy, frustration, worthlessness, and uselessness especially when the bed becomes our lifetime partners.

How about inviting the crawling Rio Cobre and Black Rivers to help us reprogramme our understanding of giving? The Black River is at the heart of the agricultural breadbasket of Jamaica and the Rio Cobre gifts water to the metropolitan regions of Kingston, St. Catherine and St. Andrew. 

These rivers teach us Silent Giving. Silent Giving is simply being present. Without loud speech and physical movement. Silent Giving is the awareness that there’s something deep within our being that’s more impacting and powerful to offer: the heart. Silent Giving is manifested not in complaints and grumbling about the past, but in a smile that erupts from a contented heart; not being a busy body, but a gentle touch; not being talkative, but listening silently; not in giving counsel with words, but with patience; not doing something for someone, but allowing someone to do for me; not in wishing to move around as I was young, but allowing my still silence to witness to the meaning of the words, “Be still and know I am God” (Psalm 46:10).