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Generosity-based leadership? EngageSmart’s CEO says generosity plays a central role in good business practices.

“Many stereotypes about business ignore the concept of generosity, as many believe all companies and their leaders are exclusively motivated by profit. This has not been my experience, and I can attest that, ironically, givers yield far more favorable results than takers. It is the givers who will succeed over the long term.”

Council Post: Reciprocity And Generosity In Business Givers yield far more favorable results than takers.

Compassionate wisdom from Parker Palmer.

Our “winters” come in many forms. Where I live, we have snow banks three feet high and subzero temps every night. In the U.S. and around the world, we’re doing our best to “winter thru” the twin threats of COVID-19 and deadly far-right politics. Literally and metaphorically, winter is on my mind.

That’s why I spent some time over the weekend with this 1995 meditation on winter. The winters of our lives are hard teachers. But their lessons can be life-giving—if we face into the season and ask the right questions as we go.

Here are a few questions drawn from the meditation that I’ve been asking myself:

• In the midst of my inner and outer struggles to survive hard weather, am I honoring my need for rest when I can get it?

• As I find myself repulsed by the stone-cold ugliness of far-right politics, do I appreciate the beauty that’s always to be found in our shared humanity?

• What am I doing to protect myself and others against the numbing effects of bad weather and coldhearted politics, and to support leaders who want to do the humane thing?

• As I witness against the deadly chill of white supremacy, am I doing everything I can to evoke “the better angels of our nature” in myself and others?

Life never stops moving in seasonal cycles, and winter is only one of the four seasons. I want to winter thru in a way that helps prepare the ground for the new growth of spring, the abundance of summer, and autumn’s reseeding of life on earth.

P.S. An earlier form of this meditation is found in my book “Let Your Life Speak,” along with meditations on the other three seasons. The original essays were commissioned by the Fetzer Institute in 1995. You can download all four of them free at https://tinyurl.com/yycuydzp.