By Cassandra Sales, ILS Program Manager
Compass loves a good theme. From retreats to camps to the year in general, any reason for us all to come together with one mindset, the better we are all for it. 2025 marks a quarter of a century into this new millennium. We have experienced so much in these past few decades, and regardless of any triumph or hurdle, our community and organization has had one driving force: being a blessing to others because we are grateful for our many blessings. With that, 2025 has become our year of generosity.
The Most Generous Act
Generosity has become synonymous with donations of money over time. However, if you think back to the most generous act, you ever received, I bet most of you don’t think of anything to do with money. Maybe it was the time the church showed up to help you move your entire house without even being asked. Perhaps generosity showed up in your life when your team showered you with positive words and stories for your birthday. It might have been when someone sat with you in your grief and let you just be unapologetically human for a while. Generosity is an act of love. As Compass embarks on this year of generosity, that is our mission, to love others well and abundantly.
Small Seeds
Generosity also doesn’t have to be a big grandiose act. While those make a large impact fast, often, the small everyday actions sow the seeds of generosity on a deeper more profound level. “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” is an old proverb we have all come to reference. Generosity is that proverb in action. Generosity is the teaching of our teams, community, clients, and stakeholders to give of their unique gifts, talents and abilities to a person, place, or cause that would benefit.
It Starts with Us
Sowing the seeds of generosity starts we each of us. It’s raking your neighbor’s lawn because you know they just had surgery. It’s volunteering at the local Humane Society to walk dogs and inviting a few of your friends to join along. It’s challenging another HUB to a trash pickup challenge at your favorite local park. There are endless ways we as an organization and community can show up generously this year. Recently, Lacy in our Shasta Region organized a Valentine’s for Seniors event where clients got together to write words and make bracelets for Seniors in an Assisted Living Facility, and they delivered them to each resident in person on Valentine’s Day. So many of those residents had their entire seasons uplifted because of the generosity of words and time from our ILS, CFS, and SLS clients.
Like Confetti
One of the amazing benefits of working with such a vast and diverse team is that all our ideas are wildly different and equally impactful. Think of generosity as confetti. When it’s in the bag, it’s not that magical, but the second you toss it around, the world gets more vibrant and fuller of passion. Spread your generosity in the same manner – abundantly, wildly, and without restraint this year. If you have ideas on how we can be generous with our time, words, and actions this year, share them with others. Bring those ideas to your team meetings and partnership meetings. Often, others want to help, and they don’t know how. If we collectively work together, the ones with the creative ideas and the ones with the means to make them a reality can make generosity our compass that guides us everywhere.