Beyond Gifts: Spreading Love, Compassion, and Connection This Season

Beyond Gifts: Spreading Love, Compassion, and Connection This Season

While up in the city this week, I gradually felt a heaviness enter my field. I ran my errands, which included going to the grocery store. This feeling followed me home. I stood outside in the rain and tried to identify the frequency to which a part of me attuned. Despondency was the term that came to mind - hopelessness. 

I realized that there seemed to be a significant amount of hopelessness floating around this year as we enter the holiday season. I reflected on the price of groceries, cost of giving, and the burden of expectations, or the lack of loving relationships that many people may be experiencing. 

As I pondered this impact on the masses, I opened up my mail to find that our real estate tax bill increased 23%, and half of this is due in December. How many people received their tax bill today and panicked? How many people at all levels of income feel this heavy burden of life on their shoulders? How many people across the world struggle to see light at the end of the tunnel?

When I look back at my most difficult times in life to-date, I never lost sight of the light at the end of the tunnel. At times, it seemed like a pinhole, or a friend or family member helped illuminate it. I always found reasons to laugh despite the rubble I stood up on. It breaks my heart to think that many people walking among us today cannot see even a pinhole of light in their tunnel and seem to have no one around them to be that light for them. 

We are entering a time of Thanksgiving - Thanks and Giving. During Christmas, we celebrate the birth of a miraculous gift. For Hanukkah, we celebrate light winning over darkness, hope in times of despair, and freedom over oppression. Yet, as our culture keeps chugging along the consumer train on our phones and social media, disconnecting our awareness of quantum connection, despondency thrives, and the holes are attempted to be filled with food, addictions, fake connections, and the like. 

My children have all they need, and I keep asking them, “What do you want for Christmas?” They have no answers for me. What a gift - to have all that you need. 

Instead of looking at giving with such a narrow focus this time of year, what if we thought outside the box? Literally…

What if we gave to those in need? What if we provided and served meals to the underserved, underprivileged, and/or the elderly instead of giving to those who have all they need? 

What if you spent the next 5+ weeks spreading kindness and love intentionally? What if that smile, act of kindness, or warmth saved someone’s life because their lack of hope was about to end theirs? 

We never know the ripple effect one act of kindness has on the whole, but my goodness, that feels so much better than getting caught up in the crazy cycle of today’s holiday standard. 

I truly feel the hopelessness radiating out there among the collective this year, and I worry about those who may call it quits as a result or resort to criminal behavior out of desperation. My son and his friends went to the local convenience store this week where the clerk asked them to put their bookbags by the door to ensure they didn’t steal anything. The clerk went on to explain that there has been an increase in theft. One of the boys asked if kids were stealing. The clerk responded by saying that all ages had sticky fingers these days. 

Desperate people do desperate things. When will we start to truly understand that we are all connected? If one person suffers, we all suffer in some way, shape, or form, but when we increase the baseline for all, we all benefit!

What can you do to help the whole this holiday season? If anything, I pray that you find it in your hearts to at least spread kindness and leave that in your wake as you move through life over the coming weeks, months, and years. 

If you are feeling hopeless, I equally pray that you remember nothing lasts forever and cycles end. I pray that you find the sliver of light to keep you moving forward and that you’re the recipient of kindness.