gifts
Tired of the old standbys of candles and ties? Annoyed with the materialism that's taken over many of life's celebrations, but still like the idea of giving? Want to give your friends and family something they really need?
How about giving the gift of:
- clean air and water
- nutritious food
- a healthy, sustainable home
- music, literature, art, dance
- a safe community
- unconditional love
- interesting work
- thoughts, theories, experiments
- a world of beauty and diversity
- a sense of meaning
You might spend money on these gifts, or you might not. The gifts may be material or they may be ethereal. You may be able to wrap them in a box, or you may present them as a performance, or give them as a gift certificate. However you give them, I guarantee that your world will be a better place if you bestow any of this awesome booty upon your friends and family.
Want more specific ideas? Well, read on...
clean air and water
What's the best way to get clean air and water? Plants! Houseplants such as spider plants are great air filters. And trees too! Low groundcover plants or ferns near a downspout from your roof will catch excess water and filter it though their rootsystems. You can grow your own gifts, make root cuttings and repot them, start bulbs, buy fully grown plants from a nursery, or just give the gift of seeds. How about an indoor herb garden? Or a (hanging) catnip plant for folks with kitties? Or donate money to a tree planting organization.
The gift of plants is the gift of life.
nutritious food
How about some homemade wholegrain bread? Or a delicious meal made from local, organic food? Loose tea made from dried herbs that you grew yourself in your garden? Or raw energy bars, cut into fun shapes with cookie cutters? How about making a collection of delicious recipies for foods that are made with three ingredients or less. (I love peanut butter on apple slices!)
Our harried lifestyles often don't leave room for truly nourishing foods made from whole, fresh grains, vegetables, fruits, and nuts.
The gift of nutritious food is the gift of health.
a healthy, sustainable home
Know anyone who lives alone and seems lonely? Have space in your home for a visitor, or even a housemate? How about sharing your home with others, for as long as you are able. There are all kinds of organizations that help you find people who need a home or just need company in their own home, either for a few hours - like Big Brothers Big Sisters, or the Red Cross's Friendly Visitor Program - or for longer, through refugee programs or even adoption. You could also donate money, time, or household goods to a homeless shelter or nursing home.
And humans aren't the only ones who need good homes, all species need a place to live. You could volunteer or give a gift donation to an organization that helps domestic animals as well as other animals who live in the wild. And we all need a healthy ecosystem to thrive, so consider donating or volunteering to help keep the diverse range of flora and fauna on the Earth alive and well.
Or give books, magazines, and movies to folks to help them learn about our amazing home - planet Earth - and how we can take good care of it.
The gift of a healthy home is the gift of comfort.
music, literature, art, dance
This one sort of speaks for itself. We all need to have our eyes, ears, noses, skin, and hearts stimulated with joyous creativity. Take someone dancing, or learn to dance with them. Go on a walk in the woods with your friends and family and see how many different species you can name. Collect pine needles and make a fresh smelling sachet with some scraps of fabric and a recycled gift ribbon. Go on a bike ride to a sculpture museum. Read a favorite poem or children's story out loud to everyone, or get a group together to present a short story as a play for a larger audience of friends, family, neighbors, or maybe a nursing home. Visit the library when they have storytelling hour or a visiting puppeteer. Make a memory book and fill it with kids drawings, photos, and stories of your childhood for your older relatives. Learn to play Irish tunes on the pennywhistle, and then give lessons and a pennywhistle as a gift to someone else. Write a song for your loved one.
The gift of your heart is the gift of joy.
a safe community
What sorts of things make life difficult for your loved ones? Consider finding ways to make life easier for them. Offer a season of shoveling and sanding of icy, snowy sidewalks or walkways. Give them dynamo or solar powered radios, flashlights, and other emergency items. Give a used bike or trike and a cargo trailer to someone so that they have more transportation options and can get around and transport things easily. Connect to neighbors and get to know them so that you can work together to solve personal or community problems and everyone can have support nearby when they need it. Sit out on your front porch or in your front yard regularly and share your life with passers by so that the community doesn't feel isolated or unihabited. Volunteer for your town council or a committee and help put compassionate policies in place that allow your friends and family to do what they need to do in daily life and stay healthy.
The gift of safe community is the gift of freedom.
unconditional love
Offer compassion and love to people without needing anything in return from them, and without expecting them to act a certain way. Unconditional love means loving someone without any conditions at all. It means letting them be who they are, even if you think who they are isn't who they should be. It's ok to let them know if something doesn't seem to be working and it's quite alright to not love their doings, as long as you let them know you still love their beings. I know that it's not easy to leave the judgement aside when you offer your love. But with practice you can do it!
The gift of unconditional love is the gift of hope.interesting work
We all need to have a way to support ourselves and a way to feel useful in the world. Can you offer someone a small job doing yard work, art work, or home work for pay or barter? Students, artists, and retired folks can often use projects and tasks to keep them busy and make a little money to supplement their limited incomes. Shoveling, childcare, errand running, sewing, mural painting, cooking, and organizing are all great jobs that you might not have time to do but need to get done. Or how about comissioning a portrait of your family by one of your more artistic friends. Or hire a young creative person to illustrate a favorite childhood story and make it into a book for your parents.
The gift of usefullness is the gift of prosperity.
thoughts, ideas, experiments
Education, learning, growing, exploring. These can be material things like books and games, or they can be adventures, classes, museum trips or memberships, or intellectual gatherings. Host a salon with the philosophical topic of your gift recipient's choice. Compare notes on your theories of traffic jams. Write a clever book about everything you've learned and share it with your pals. Give a workshop in your home, or theirs, about knitting, robots, gardening, string theory, or meditation.
The gift of knowledge is the gift of growth.
a world of beauty and diversity
You can focus on making one life more beautiful, or you can focus on making many lives beautiful all in one shot. Start a community garden. Paint your grandmother's house like a painted lady victorian to liven up her neighborhood. Start a scholarship fund in your gift recipient's name. Donate copies of your friend's or family member's favorite books to a school, nursing home, or library in their name. Build a snow fort or treehouse for the whole neighborhood to play in. Organize a community group to buy and refurbish an old building for use as an artist's space and community center. Create a website for your friends and family to showcase their art, poetry, and stories for the world to enjoy. Get permission to decorate the sidewalks and streets and have street parties, yard sales, and parades. Invite people who have different backgrounds or are from different cultures to each share something from their histories for a book, play, or party. Go on a safari in your neighborhood and write an entertaining field guide to all the flora and fauna you discover to share with your community, and friends and family who may have moved away. Sponsor a playground scupture or mural featuring your partner's favorite childhood game.
The gift of beauty and diversity is the gift of lasting abundance.
a sense of meaning
The most difficult and meaningful of gifts is the gift of meaning itself. Meaning is illusory and ephemeral. But you can offer your loved ones the gift of meaning by being there for them when they need you, asking them for help when you need it, sharing your life with them, and looking for ways to help them be the best they can be. You can ask them what sort of world they would life to see, and help them make it so. You can support them when they have a great idea. And help them find better ideas when something goes wrong. You can listen to their hopes and dreams and see what you can do to help them come true, and you can encourage them to take on challenges that will keep them using all of their mind, body, and spirit.
The gift of meaning is the gift of wholeness
The Wise Turtle wishes you a life filled with meaning and abundance, and with growth, prosperity, hope, freedom, joy, comfort, and good old health, too!
Want more? Inspired? Amused? Just want to share your thoughts? Contact The Wise Turtle and see what she has to offer you!
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