*Original artist inspiration story posted with paid content on the ZOX blog. Subscribe to the ZOX blog to read the original post.

https://blog.zox.la/happiness-is-giving/

I was 6 or 7 when I checked out The Giving Tree from the bookmobile. My family lived about a mile from the lot the bright blue library bus visited once a week. I rushed ahead of my parents on the walk home, eager to read it.

I burst through the door and threw open the book without kicking off my muddy shoes. I sat with my nose pressed to the pages until the final ‘happy’ ending.

But I wasn’t impressed. In fact, I was devastated. Disgusted. Distressed.

I was furious with that little boy and sad to see the sweet tree reduced to a stump. The message eluded me. I went on many years carrying disdain for the terrible destruction of that gracious and generous tree.

I revisited the story as a teenager, reading to kindergarten classes, and thought there might be a glimmer of some message in the faithfulness of the tree, but I still couldn’t quite grasp it.

In my 20s, I became a parent and lost my father in just a few short years, meaning I inherited the responsibility of caring for my disabled mother. All at once, I was blessed with the gift and burden of giving more than I ever knew I had in me to give over, and over, and over again.

I experienced the kind of relentless love that leads us to give as if our next breath depends on it, even when we know it’s not guaranteed.

But I didn’t think once about that silly boy or sad tree.

Finally, I went through a trunk filled with my daddy’s childhood belongings and found his original copy of The Giving Tree, thumbed dirty and creased in strange places. I sat and read it slowly as if it was the first time I had ever read at all. Tears streamed down my face as the tree offered its fruit, its limbs, its stature, and strength until only its roots and heart remained recognizable. And when the tree thought it could give no more, it was still enough.

It was always enough. It wasn’t taken for granted. It wasn’t damaged. Giving was its gift.

It was imaginative play and a full belly. It was a boat to sail, a home to shelter, a stoop to rest. It was the world to a little boy and a lifetime of memories.

I learned a few things about myself, about who I wanted to be, and what I meant to the people in my life upon that reading. I often felt like I was failing as I flailed through one day into the next, trying to create a picture of perfection from some worn-out dream I carried in my pocket. I felt invisible. Exhausted. Cut down.

But the truth is, I was enough. I was giving it my all. I loved giving.

And I was happy.

The Happiness is Giving strap contains an original script I hope will inspire wearers for years to come. ❤

“The truth is, we are all part of a cycle. We spin in a balance of give and take. We must not break the evolution with greed or with jealousy. But rather fill our place in the great circle by finding genuine joy in the gift of giving and gratitude for the gifts we receive. For there is no greater happiness than giving without expectations and receiving without burden.”