Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Paying it forward

Going through my blog roll recently, I came across an entry that got me all teary.

Here's how The Bloggess decided to pay it forward.
The past few days have been a whirlwind and I’m exhausted  and have given myself hives so please forgive the typos.
A few days ago I put up a post offering $30 gift cards to the first twenty people who didn’t know how they were going to give their kids Christmas gifts this year.  They went frighteningly quickly.  When I got to the twentieth person I saw that there were still a few more people who needed help and my heart sunk.  Then a few comments in one person said “I’ll take care of the 21st person”.  Then another person offered a card for the 22nd.  Then another.  Then it avalanched...
Amazing.  The Washington Post wrote up an article.

I don't feel like I go too big at Christmas, I usually just buy gifts for immediate family and occasionally close friends.  Though I try and come up with a list of gift ideas throughout the year so it's not just a mad dash to find something that will work for the recipient, about half-way through the shopping, that's exactly what it becomes.  Then I tell myself that next year will be different.  Maybe we'll have an agreement that all gifts must be hand-made or set limits on how much we're going to spend or pull 1 name out of a hat.  Bottom line, I think my loved ones enjoy the time spent together over the gifts received.  Need to remind myself of that so that I don't get distracted next year once the Christmas music starts getting played 24/7.

I'll write another entry after the holidays to let you know how the gifts given this year went over.  A couple of them are paying it forward in a way.

Thanks Bloggess for spreading holiday cheer and some major inspiration.

1 comment:

Seattle Yogi said...

Had to leave a link for another pay it forward gesture which also got me teary.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12043294
I think I'll be adding pay it forward gestures to my list of things that make me feel good (from the Happiness Project, a future blog post).