It may be tempting to think of this Wendell Berry poem as only for “people of a certain age.” But that would be a mistake, or so it seems to me. The poem is not first and foremost about aging and dying. It’s about generosity, one of the most life-giving of all virtues.

Sabbaths – 1993, I
by Wendell Berry

No, no, there is no going back.
Less and less you are
that possibility you were.
More and more you have become
those lives and deaths
that have belonged to you.

(Excerpted from A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems. Read the full poem here.)

Generosity does not require material abundance. When I think back on the many people who have been so generous toward me, I never think of money or “things.” Instead, I think of the way they gave me their presence, their confidence, their affirmation, support, and blessing — all gifts of “self” that any of us can give.

And where does generosity come from? Perhaps from another life-giving virtue, the one called gratitude. When I take the time to breathe in my life and breathe out my gratitude for the gifts I’ve been given, only one question arises: “How can I keep these gifts alive?”

I know only one answer: “Become a giver yourself, pass your gifts along, and do it extravagantly!” As Wendell Berry says, “Every day you have less reason/not to give yourself away.”