Giving it Away

My winter reading includes a book called 29 Gifts – How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life.  There is a website.  www.29gifts.org. Check it out.  I am going to take the challenge, and tell you my 29 gifts.

Day 1.  Perhaps it is cheating, because I already had this lined up.  But I have an amazing group of employees and I gave them all spa gift certificates.  They deserve it.  They usually take care of me.  So I hope they will let me pay someone to take care of them for a change.  One of them admitted she still had the certificate I gave her last year, so it forced her to make an appointment.  Check.

Day 2.  I gave someone tickets to the basketball game.  That was easy.  I also listened to someone who needed someone to listen.  I am not always a good listener, although I work at it almost every day.  Maybe I can keep getting better at it.

Day 3.  A giving bonanza.  I gave cash to the guy sitting doing sodoku at a table, next to his shopping cart full of worldly possessions.  He looked like he could use lunch.  I gave a birthday present to Andra’s friend.  I gave a hostess gift to someone who was, you guessed it, hosting a party.  I gave a glowing referral for  Lyra, the best photographer ever.  I gave a new mom the chance to eat dinner while I commandeered her sweet baby boy for an hour.  I gave my kids a gift card to the coolest bookstore in town and actually let them pick what they wanted without saying “You don’t need that.” 20 times.  It starts to actually feel selfish, because all this giving is making me pretty happy.

Day 4.  The giving of stuff is pretty easy, I guess.  Today, I gave a job to my neighbor (the SACRIFICE – I had to get a massage so she could work).  That was pretty easy.  I also gave Grace her way.  Which was much harder.  Grace watches so much Food TV that she plots and schemes elaborate meal plans that don’t usually fit in to my normal level of effort.  So today, I let her pick what we were going to make, we shopped for it, and we are making dinner for tonight, compliments of the Next Food Network Star Melissa, with Kielbasa “as a side” she says, and then we are making lasagna for later in the week.  Plus, she is making a dessert which doesn’t sound good to me, but everyone else will probably love.  The food is now baking, and I let her do it all.  It took forever.  It seems like the start of a good joke “How many hours does it take for a 9 year old to slice 5 pounds of potatoes?” 

I feel like in order to keep it up, I need to PLAN the next 25 gifts, but maybe that isn’t the way it is supposed to go.  I guess if you are trying to be present, and aware of what someone else might need, you are more open.  I guess I will just be on the look out tomorrow.  Someone out there needs something. 

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