<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><p class="MsoNormal">When Giving is All We Have</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><div class=""> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">One river gives</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">Its journey to the next.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><div class=""> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">We give because someone gave to us.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">We give because nobody gave to us.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">We give because giving has changed us.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">We give because giving could have changed us.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">We have been better for it,</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">We have been wounded by it—</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">Giving has many faces: It is loud and quiet,</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">Big, though small, diamond in wood-nails.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">Its story is old, the plot worn and the pages too,</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">But we read this book, anyway, over and again:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">Giving is, first and every time, hand to hand,</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">Mine to yours, yours to mine.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">You gave me blue and I gave you yellow.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">Together we are simple green. You gave me</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">What you did not have, and I gave you</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">What I had to give—together, we made</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">Something greater from the difference.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Alberto Ríos</p></body></html>