giving

GIVING
thats what christmas should be about
giving
and
not receiving

ive thought a lot about christmas
and
how we all go crazyeyed over shopping
just look at black friday and black thanksgiving

people yes thats many of you are just crazy
to go out into that maize of inhumanity
to shop
for stuff you they really dont need

we have maybe overdone christmas some in the past
but each year we are getting better at making it
more reasonable

heck
weve even reduced our tree down to a true
charlie brown christmas tree
surrounding it with our gifts

now im writing this
before we get our new grand baby
what im about to write may change all that some
but not the central theme

a relative of mine whose name will be kept anonymous
but if you are kin to me you already know who he is
gives gift certificates to folks from an organization
that makes loans to folks in poor countries

i have parlayed his initial gift as they were repaid
and
as i added more funds
to several hundreds of dollars out there loaned to
folks in the us and central america
mainly nicaragua
since i like those people a lot

so his little christmas gift now does good for folks
in these countries
my loans have been to farmers shop owners pharmacies
restaurant owners
many of them female
so far i have never had any of them not pay back a loan
you dont see that in the us do you

then
sometimes he donates the gift in your name to
a scholarship program

now thats what christmas should really be about
shouldnt it
giving
and
not all that black friday stuff

what if we all made our kids gift stuff at christmas
to those in need
maybe lets say
50% of  our christmas budget
which gift do you think that kiddo gets the most
from
and
which one he/she would really remember years from now

so this year
my wife she and i decided to downsize our christmas
budget
it doesnt make sense to spend those dollars
lets give it away to those in need


so this year
we will give 25% of our gifts to our loved ones
in the form of gift certificates that they will
use to help others
so we will start out doing www.kiva.org gift cards to
each
which they can go online and loan to some one in need
here in the us and in the rest of the world
as its repaid
then reloan it


courtesy of www.tyrellmara.com

we will expand that each year
it just seems the right thing to do

the organicgreen doctor