Saturday, November 1, 2014

Too Early For Christmas.

And so, November is here. 

November, not December, not the holidays, yet.  I say that though, internally I am filled with a slow, building sense of panic.

You see I'm not much of a planner when it comes to holidays.  And when I say planning what I really mean is saving up for gifts.  Or my other issue which is figuring out what the f*** to get for my loving friends and family.

Not exactly the holiday spirit.  I'm grateful that the amount of emotional stress is less.  Years ago I thought I had something to prove and go big with gifts or at least try to.  Most of the time feeling like a big fat failure.

A couple of years back I had a sponsor who helped me with all of this, whether she realized she was doing so or not I'm not sure.  She asked me to help her with a toy drive for kids of incarcerated parents.

At first I was jaded about the idea. I didn't like the idea of helping out those parents in prison, after all they put themselves there right? But those kids?  Well I had to take a hard look at things and came to the conclusion that EVERY kid deserves a gift, and in this case even more so.  Some children grow up with the shame of their parents mistakes, robbing them of the childhood they all deserve.  I could relate to that.  

And miraculously when I put the word out I received so many contributions, some from friends of friends who I'd never even met!  It filled me with joy to think of people helping people, and I was a part of that.  It put things into perspective.  So what if the gifts I could afford for people were or weren't good enough?  Who cared?

Maybe I need to take a page from that lesson and look at this year the same way and give with a purpose.  But not this way:


Find a charity, help others.  But where to start? 

 

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