Christmas generates a collective spirit; enlightening people to the understanding they should express their love and compassion toward one another. Christmas Spirit, the fantastically contagious holiday epidemic, causes uncontrollable happiness, compassion, and warmth generated from within. It also causes love to spew from the lips of friends and family members at delightful rates – rates which we do not see any other time of year. Christmas Spirit awakens the heart.
I didn’t have the money to do much in the way of gifts this year, but I did have the creativity to make some things for the people I will be seeing. I don’t believe Christmas has anything to do with spending lots of money. What I aimed for this year was giving people things I made myself – it’s going to be a sort of one-of-a-kind artwork Christmas.
I had been struggling to taste any semblance of Christmas Spirit on my tongue and in my heart this year, but after heading to the beach in nice 80 degree weather for the weekend with my parents, Jeff, Susan, and my boyfriend Jon-Michael, I’m bursting at the seams with Christmas Spirit (…as odd as that seems).
All those viral Christmas stories go around every year – the one about the child buying shoes for his sick mom, the one about the young woman whose food stamp card won’t work at the grocery, the one about the soldiers who finally get to come home to their families, and while each of them I’m sure has a thread of truth, I wonder how many people actually carry those stories with them beyond forwarding them to their friends and family this season?
It’s this time of year that brings out the giving spirit in so many people, and I know those in need are eternally grateful for what is given, but I wonder what happens to the people who need help all the other eleven months of the year? Who helps them?
I would give all the money in the world if I possessed it. I would fix the lives and stop the heartache for all the people I could reach. If I won the Lottery, I’d use it to stabilize the lives of the people around me and spread the wealth as far and as wide as possible. But I am by no means a financially wealthy woman (and I can’t even afford to play the Lottery).
My heart, however, is overflowing. And the contents of it I can give, and give, and give and the supply never runs dry. So whether it is winter, spring, summer, or fall, I’ll give what I have to give – love, compassion, friendship, kindness, and all those heart-grown things.
It doesn’t take the spirit of Christmas for things like love and compassion to flourish in me and I wish there was some way I could teach the entire world to see with these same eyes. To see past surfaces and skins, to see the good most people possess, and to quit assuming things are as they seem. We never fully know another person’s story until we’ve given them the opportunity to let us in.
This is the season of giving, of generosity, and of compassion and love. And I realize this year is tighter than any before for most of us, but I urge everyone to seek new and more affordable ways to give this year. And to give farther than you ever have.
Donate clothes to a charity, donate your time to a mentoring program, give to a school or church fund raiser or to the Red Cross, volunteer in a soup kitchen, or sponsor an animal for an organization like Heifer International. These are all gifts that give farther than traditional gift-giving and in times when more people need more help than imaginable, a small donation to a larger cause will both warm your heart and put food on the table of a family in need. Or clothe a child. Or feed a village. Or perhaps even catch the eye of a passerby who, in turn, shares his or her wealth of compassion.
For Christmas this year, I’m giving you my love and all my best wishes for a happy and successful new year. I hope you’ll share your love and best wishes with those around you this season, but all I ask in return is that you pass the love, compassion, kindness, and friendship along to someone you haven’t met yet. It’ll change their life and yours. I promise.
I didn’t have the money to do much in the way of gifts this year, but I did have the creativity to make some things for the people I will be seeing. I don’t believe Christmas has anything to do with spending lots of money. What I aimed for this year was giving people things I made myself – it’s going to be a sort of one-of-a-kind artwork Christmas.
I had been struggling to taste any semblance of Christmas Spirit on my tongue and in my heart this year, but after heading to the beach in nice 80 degree weather for the weekend with my parents, Jeff, Susan, and my boyfriend Jon-Michael, I’m bursting at the seams with Christmas Spirit (…as odd as that seems).
All those viral Christmas stories go around every year – the one about the child buying shoes for his sick mom, the one about the young woman whose food stamp card won’t work at the grocery, the one about the soldiers who finally get to come home to their families, and while each of them I’m sure has a thread of truth, I wonder how many people actually carry those stories with them beyond forwarding them to their friends and family this season?
It’s this time of year that brings out the giving spirit in so many people, and I know those in need are eternally grateful for what is given, but I wonder what happens to the people who need help all the other eleven months of the year? Who helps them?
I would give all the money in the world if I possessed it. I would fix the lives and stop the heartache for all the people I could reach. If I won the Lottery, I’d use it to stabilize the lives of the people around me and spread the wealth as far and as wide as possible. But I am by no means a financially wealthy woman (and I can’t even afford to play the Lottery).
My heart, however, is overflowing. And the contents of it I can give, and give, and give and the supply never runs dry. So whether it is winter, spring, summer, or fall, I’ll give what I have to give – love, compassion, friendship, kindness, and all those heart-grown things.
It doesn’t take the spirit of Christmas for things like love and compassion to flourish in me and I wish there was some way I could teach the entire world to see with these same eyes. To see past surfaces and skins, to see the good most people possess, and to quit assuming things are as they seem. We never fully know another person’s story until we’ve given them the opportunity to let us in.
This is the season of giving, of generosity, and of compassion and love. And I realize this year is tighter than any before for most of us, but I urge everyone to seek new and more affordable ways to give this year. And to give farther than you ever have.
Donate clothes to a charity, donate your time to a mentoring program, give to a school or church fund raiser or to the Red Cross, volunteer in a soup kitchen, or sponsor an animal for an organization like Heifer International. These are all gifts that give farther than traditional gift-giving and in times when more people need more help than imaginable, a small donation to a larger cause will both warm your heart and put food on the table of a family in need. Or clothe a child. Or feed a village. Or perhaps even catch the eye of a passerby who, in turn, shares his or her wealth of compassion.
For Christmas this year, I’m giving you my love and all my best wishes for a happy and successful new year. I hope you’ll share your love and best wishes with those around you this season, but all I ask in return is that you pass the love, compassion, kindness, and friendship along to someone you haven’t met yet. It’ll change their life and yours. I promise.
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