Give it away

The way to be rich is to give away your money, and the more broke you are, the more essential it is: to pay the fare of the person behind you at the toll booth, to leave the two quarters in the well of the pay phone, to find the charities you like and lay money on them. Not out of virtue, but to stir things up, to get the universe moving. If you’re stone-broke and totally discouraged, donate your old clothes, give someone a ride to school, baby-sit free. You’re never so wretched that you can’t give something away. If you feel like you don’t have enough love in your life (no writer, artist, human being can exist without love), don’t go around trying to steal it at low bars from impressionable young men and women: Try giving it away, in a blaze of affection, compliments, and hugs. Start with your musty old grandma, your lumpy wife, your doltish dad: hugs and compliments — because you have so much love in your bank that you can afford to give it all away, lavishly and recklessly. You’re not doing this to be “good” or to get to heaven on the fast track. You’re doing this to draw designs in the universe, casting your bread on the edge of the pond, watching it go out there and eddy on back in again, practicing the magic of outflow, looking to become a millionaire in work and love. (Carolyn See, Making a Literary Life)