As the weather gets colder I start thinking about the holidays, baking and decorating, and people in need. I don’t know what exactly it is about the holidays that makes us more charitable, I wish I could say that it was something that I carried through the whole year but that is a lie. Well that is not entirely true, when I can I donate clothes and household items to charity, I give to breast cancer research and for several years I sponsored a child in a third world country. But that is thoughtless charity, which is to say that I am not thinking about the intent when I do it. When I donate clothes I am trying to get them out of my house, the money for the child came out of my bank automatically every month and I never really gave much thought about who it was intended for. I believe that charity isn’t just an action but also and intent.
You may know already that my wonderful husband volunteers most of his Friday and Saturday evenings in December to work for Operation Red Nose and last year I went with him for two shifts as well. And I loved it. It was totally rewarding.
Another thing we did last year was to contribute regularly to the food bank. And not just the crappy stuff in our cupboard that we don’t want to eat ourselves. When we go to the grocery store we pick a couple of items and buy extra, it especially good when things are on BOGO. We try and pick things we like ourselves because if I were receiving help I would be sad if all I got was Kraft Dinner and cans of soup. I don’t want to give “charity” I want to give someone a helping hand.
My plan this year starts November first. Each and every time we go to the grocery store for ourselves I will pick up a few things for the food bank. I want to donate some money too so the food bank can buy perishables.
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