You may be thinking about a gift for your loved one for Valentine’s Day, since it’s getting to be last-minute. How about this?
Give your Valentine a locally-grown plant to enjoy for a long time rather than a bouquet of short-lasting flowers which traveled great distances to get here. (80% of the flowers sold in the U.S. come from Colombia and Ecuador.) It’s a loving gift that will last months or years to come, reminding that special someone of your love.
Start a new Christmas tradition. Each family member writes down a gift, placing the paper in a special stocking or wrapped box with a slot on top. The gift should be for someone outside your family—a neighbor, another family, acquaintance, person you’ve heard about. And the gift must be of time, not money or goods, a gift of self, not charity. Examples: monthly visits to a nursing home for a year; driving a person to medical appointments until he’s well; helping an adult or child learn English or to read or write; changing the attitude of a prejudiced friend. (I can give you more ideas–let me know.)
Have a very merry Christmas!
DON’T BURN THAT GIFT WRAP IN YOUR FIREPLACE! The metals and ink in much of the paper cause many fires each year and send harmful particulates into the air we breathe.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
Looking for a novel Christmas gift? Maybe a pig farm in Bolivia? A grocery store in the Philippines? Doors for a house in El Salvador? This is how it works: you buy a gift certificate for as little as $25 from www.Kiva.org. The person you give it to goes to that site to choose a recipient for his microloan. That money, combined with other microloans, will start or expand a small business in a developing country, allowing people there to earn a living, educate their children, and generally improve their families’ lives. Kiva loans don’t earn interest, but 99% of the loans have been repaid (including all the ones I’ve made). Other poverty-targeted microloan organizations have differing investment amounts, pay-backs, and structures. I mention Kiva because of my personal experience with it. And they offer gift cards which you can give to, say, a grandchild. Then you can go online with him to set up the account in his name. Together you can watch a small investment change people’s lives in a big way, and the grandchild can boast, “I helped rebuild a house in Peru!”
Tomorrow is “Giving Tuesday,” a holiday designed to balance out the self-absorbed madness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. On this day, business, charities, communities, and families enter into the spirit of giving. EVERYONE can participate. If not with our wallets, then with our excess food in our pantries or the second Buy-one/Get-One-Free item. With that like-new clothing we loved when we bought it but know we’ll never wear. With those toys our kids opened Christmases ago but sit in their boxes, unplayed with. With blankets and rain ponchos for the homeless who are about to be caught in what promises to be a harsh winter. Or simply with the gift of our time: to help at a shelter or soup kitchen; to visit a lonely elder in a nursing home; to comfort a grieving family; to be with a troubled child. I hope Giving Tuesday expands to Giving Everyday. During this month, though, it turns the madness into a loving anticipation of a Christmas season packed with all the meaning it’s supposed to have.
Summer is here! No school. Vacation. More sunshine and, hopefully, less stress. More outings with the family. It’s an excellent time to be thankful for all we have. Like our senses. They allow us to enjoy life and, if we’re open, experience the God of our belief all around us. The embracing warmth of sunshine. The calming fragrance of Jasmine. The sea’s salty tang on our tongues, reminding us of friendship and brotherhood. The humbling sight of a giant redwood. The call of the crane to freedom. And that feeling we get when we relax in our favorite garden spot and allow our surroundings to envelop us. Nature is a wonderful gift. We should always appreciate it, respect it, and protect it.
Happy Mother’s Day to your mom or someone who has been a mom to you. Give her a beautiful indoor or outdoor flowering plant she can enjoy for many more years than the bouquet enclosed in a plastic tube. Both she and the Earth will appreciate it.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings Write caption…
Valentine’s Day is almost here and you don’t have a gift for your Special Person. Why not choose a gift that says, “Let’s share our love!” Present Sweetie with something that benefits a group or cause. Many companies dedicate proceeds from the sale of certain products to fighting cancer, preventing domestic violence, or helping victims of disasters. Others offer “fair trade” products–food items, for example, whose production has been overseen to ensure that workers have not been enslaved or mistreated. Possible gifts include cosmetics, gloves, scarves, T-shirts, fitness aids (exercise mats, heart-rate monitor watch, etc.), lunch boxes, coffee, and chocolate.
Doing some last-minute shopping for a computer for your college student? Look for an eco-friendly one that saves money. Buy one of the new energy-efficient models with a fan that doesn’t run constantly. If just a moderate number of us did this we’d cut computer energy use in half and save $5.5 billion.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
Are you among the millions of people stumped for a Christmas gift for that special (or un-special) someone? Think outside of the gift wrapping…and enjoy a laugh. Check out these 41 Weird Christmas Gifts That Even Normal People Will Love.
