One type of poem I’ve been writing this year is a gift basket poem – – what would I give a recipient in any given month of the year? For November, the choice is clear: it’ll be filled with brown things.
If I were giving you a gift basket I’d go basketweave brown!
you’d receive a caramel cake, fresh-baked and glazed to gratify all visiting gobblers
a leather-bound gratitude journal to gather your blessings this holiday season
and a warm wooden photo frame to season your photos like a perfectly browned turkey ~ a cornucopia of nourishment sure to fill your appetite!
This December, I’m slowly making my way through Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year by Beth Kempton (2020), and in Chapter 4 which begins Part 2, she presents ways to consider mindful giving as we celebrate during Christmas.
Kempson says, “Mindful giving comes down to three questions: whether to give, what to give, and how to give.” She goes on to explain that sometimes, the best gift of all is the gift of nothing (there is a child’s picture book title by that name) – that the social contract of giving is often felt most strongly this time of year when the release is there to simply forego gifting. In fact, she provides a statistic that 60 million gifts in 2018 in the UK were unwanted, according to one study, and that another survey found that six out of every ten gifts given to a sample of 2,000 adults were unwanted. Before giving, she offers 3 questions to guide the gifting: is it mindful, is it meaningful, and is it memorable?
Our office holds a gift exchange, and while it’s fun, I’d lay a wager that the numbered gifts fall into the statistics above. For this occasion, I look at the dollar value and either go with wrapped cash or a gift card from a certain huge retailer named after a river in South America. Everyone participating seems to like this option so they can either use it to further their own Christmas shopping or personalize a gift for themselves – from someone who doesn’t know any of them well enough to give a one-size-appeals-to-all gift in this eclectic mix of personalities that would satisfy whomever ends up with it. And it works like a charm.
For the smaller department sector, I set out to answer the age-old question about the best gift for all ages. Everyone loves it. Everyone needs it. Everyone uses it. No one expects it.
And I came up with the answer to this universal question by looking deep into my own soul and asking: what does everyone need that everyone probably already has but could use more of, where size, age, gender, religious affiliation, and political persuasion does not matter? And a clear answer rose to the top.
Chapstick.
I ordered three dozen tubes of Candy Cane Chapstick, along with a supply of clip holder sleeves I’d seen on a travel blog recently. The sleeves have a clip that allows users to attach the tube to a lanyard or a purse loop or backpack strap so that the tubes don’t end up in pockets, either lost through holes, melting with body temperature – or worse, going through the washer and dryer and staining clothes with petroleum spots like I’ve done so many times.
I grabbed a tabletop tree from Hobby Lobby and festooned the tree with the best guard against bitter winter wind that exists – this universal tiny tube of lip bliss. And here is what I discovered: you can’t go wrong with a candy cane Chapstick tree. It’s mindful, meaningful, and (hopefully) memorable – at least for a season.
Even with all of the thanks and appreciative conversations with people asking for the links to be able to re-create the idea at their family gatherings this year, the thrill of giving something you know people both need and want far outweighs the joy of receiving. It’s the greatest feeling in the world!
Scott McCloskey from Michigan is our host today for the first day of our October Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com. He inspires us to write Questionable Products Poems – the kind with a slant of an ode to something that raises our eyebrows in wonder, disgust, or utter surprise. You can read his full prompt here. Be sure to check out the links, too, at the bottom – for those strange things we all need.
I made the trip late Friday night, leaving work at 4 p.m. and planning to drive to Chattanooga before stopping to sleep. Even though there have been two major hurricanes in the Southeast in the past week or so, I hadn’t predicted the fully booked impact on hotels. There was no room in the inns for me. Not in Chattanooga, not in Manchester, not in the second exit after Manchester. It wasn’t until Murfreesboro that I found the proverbial “one last room,” and I eagerly and exhaustedly took it, continuing the rest of the trip yesterday morning after a restful sleep.
My worst fears flashed when I got to Owensboro to check in for a few days here, only to be told at the first hotel that they were booked. Thankfully, I found a room on the second attempt at a nearby hotel and checked in after a full day of scouting for fruit and vegetable trays, baby game prize gifts, and the perfect woodland-colored jumper and sweater set to show off the little one growing in my daughter’s cute belly.
This baby is a healing miracle for her and for her love. They found each other, despite all odds of their challenging journeys, and two families come together today to help them prepare to become not only a couple, but also a family.
The grandmothers got together to give our Silas a cake knife and slice server engraved with his name: Silas Haynes Neal. This set will be used at his baby shower and at his birthday parties in years to come, with the hopes that he will also use it as he cuts the groom’s cake at his own wedding someday – and we hope that if we are no longer here to be physically present, then there will at least be some small part of us present in spirit on that day as he celebrates.
For today, we are here and we are anticipating his arrival at the end of 2024. We couldn’t be happier!
For Christmas, my grandchildren made me hand-stitched birds. The love that went into each stitch is precious and was a labor of love and patience for them and for their mother. They will adorn my new office space as soon as we get moved into our new building. These are far too lovely to hang only once a year on a tree. I need them where I am reminded daily of my blessings, for those times I get caught up in the work day and forget that there are so many reasons to smile and take things in stride. I love that their mother is already teaching them that the key to the fine art of gift giving is in the heart of the recipient – and that handmade gifts are the most special of all!
Common Threads 