This post is written by Susannah Keene who is lending a helping hand at DWYL whilst Beth prepares herself for motherhood. Susie met Beth when they worked together at UNICEF in London and they then spent a couple of years working together in Ghana before moving back to the UK to get married. She is expecting her first baby in the New Year and in the meantime she’s enjoying exploring new opportunities for DWYL’s development and sharing growth ideas with Paul for 2014…
If you ask someone to describe to you what Christmas means to them, I bet a lot of people would say that it is a time of celebration, a time to spend with your family, to share presents and indulge in copious amounts of food and treats. Year after year, we follow the same routine and, whilst the majority of us enjoy it, Christmas can just be an event in our annual calendars that we switch into auto-pilot for.
I vividly remember during my teenage years that every Christmas Day afternoon I would burst out crying; a release of the feeling that had built during the day brought on by the sheer number of presents that were exchanged amongst our privileged family. Did we really need all of this stuff? What about all of those people in the world who weren’t as fortunate as us? Why was so much money being wasted on things that were only going to be put at the back of a cupboard?
And yet, I find myself today falling into this cultural trap of giving presents for birthdays, Christmas, weddings and christenings because it is expected of you. So why do I do it? Is it because I want them to do the same for me? Definitely not. The pleasure for me lies in thinking carefully about something that someone special might enjoy, in wrapping the present to make it look beautiful and in watching the joy of the individual receive the present. If this is the case, why do all of these things have to be achieved through giving a physical present?
One of the main reasons we have the custom of giving and receiving presents at Christmas is to remind us of the presents of Frankincense, Gold and Myrrh given to Jesus by the Three Wise Men. In our consumer driven society, our senses are attacked at this time of year by brands persuading us that we need to buy their product. But what if we looked at the gift of giving in a different way? What if each year we decided to give something of ourselves at Christmas time instead of another bar of soap or pair of socks?
We all have individual talents that others would love to learn from us, own things that we can share and have time to spend with others so why don’t we give those valuable things at Christmas instead? I personally can’t think of anything better than opening a gift this Christmas from someone offering to spend a morning with me teaching me a new skill or spending an afternoon to go to my favourite museum. Yes of course I enjoy receiving lovely new things for our house or new clothes to wear but they aren’t really the things that make me happy. This Christmas I’m looking forward to teaching my Mum how to read sheet music so that she can enjoy, and participate more easily, in her new choir.
But perhaps most importantly, or relevantly, you could spend some time with a loved one this Christmas to help them discover what it is that they truly love doing. If you’ve taken one of our courses, could you share some of the things that you have learnt with them? Could you spend some time to talk through and encourage them to find their passion and participate in a life doing what they love? The gift of giving doesn’t have to be the exchange of a physical item. I feel sure that if you helped someone find their passion this Christmas it would be the best gift they ever received.
For further inspiration around giving actions visit The Do Nation.
