giving back on #givingtuesday

Today is Giving Tuesday. A national celebration of giving back, being generous, helping those in need. Last week, when my sister was in town we hit the stores, primarily shopping for children I chose from the giving tree at my office. When we returned home from gathering the goods we excitedly pulled everything out of the bags, organized it, laid it out, made cute outfits with the clothes and grouped items together for each child.

Al made a comment as we were doing all this. Something along the lines of how happy all this shopping and giving had made us, and it was true. It makes me so happy to be able to provide necessities for these children. When I think about what we have, how much we have and how blessed we are – great jobs, roof over our heads, food on our table, ability to take vacations, not worry about how to pay for gas in the car, etc. – it’s an easy realization that we have plenty of room to give back.

In the spirit of the day try to do one thing, just one small thing for someone else today. It doesn’t have to be life changing, you don’t have to go search for a giving tree or spend hundreds of dollars. Some simple ideas:

• give a $5 gift card to Subway or another local food joint to a homeless person
• donate food to a local pantry – just grab a few things from your cupboards
• donate toys or kids pajamas to a Ronald McDonald house
• pay the parking meter for someone if you see it’s expired and flashing red
• buy a coffee for the person behind you in line
• deliver baked goods to a local fire house

The options are endless. Today I packaged up all of our giving tree items and placed them under the tree at work. A co-worker, who saw I needed help in the parking lot, gave back to me this morning by helping me carry all the bags. Do one thing today, for someone else. Small acts of giving back are what lead us to live fuller lives, just as Al had noticed when my sister and I were so happy, joy in our faces and voices because of what we were able to provide to a handful of kids in need.

I’d love for you to leave comments of other ideas and suggestions for giving back. And I’d love even more for this to continue not just today, on a national day of giving, but everyday.

#givingtuesday

p.s. stay tuned for another post today!