Holiday Gift Giving
Can Uplift and Inspire
Those of us who live in the USA especially get to see just how commercial the December holiday season has become. We may boycott or balance the frenzy and the shopping mall commercialism by giving through our favorite charities. We may sing in a choir for the sick or the elderly. We may give to the poor. Our religious traditions, whatever they may be, have asked us to be generous with others, to give to those in need. We have traditionally defined need as having to do with food, health or shelter and so we have helped with those things, but there also can be a deeper need in the holiday season. There is the need for inspiration to enter into the heart of our everyday living. The need for the deeper nourishment of life to feed us through the way we live our lives, and be with the people we love. This need is reflected for ourselves somewhat in the tradition of making New Year's resolutions, as if in this dark time of the year we are able to look deeply at how we have lived and see a new direction or new possibilities for ourselves that were not visible before. In the time of the dark, we commit ourselves to living more perfectly our own sense of possibility for ourselves, and then it comes to the test as the days lengthen again. We are sometimes only left with a memory of our deep connection with ourselves as we go out to meet the world in all its drama and complexity. How can we help fill this need both for ourselves and for those that we care about and exchange gifts with? I would like to suggest that the holiday gift giving time be used to give to each other whatever might assist our loved ones to bring into awareness and to more fully bring into our lives the deep connection with who we truly are. Giving this sort of gifts would be serving the need for deeper nourishment in the holiday season and these things would still be with the recipients as they take that awareness back into the world in the new year's cycle. For some people, that might mean giving the book, Life Beyond Belief, Everyday Living as Spiritual Practice. Instructions for ordering are below, and orders at Awake Publishing will be mailed out immediately knowing that you will want them for the holidays. For others who may look for more basic teachings with less personal content, I would like to recommend the books of Chuck Hillig. Check them out on amazon.com. They are so wonderfully clear, simple, straightforward and wise. There are also many other inspiring books listed on the recommended reading list at www.wideawakeliving.com. There are of course many other ways than books to give the gift of inspiration. It can be setting an example in our own lives for others to see what is possible. It can be as simple as a look or a touch that directly communicates presence, joy or love from one person to another.
|
