Season of Giving - December 1

Last month there was a news report on a man who started a food pantry in his front yard in Pittsburgh  because of the SNAP cuts.  I read about this in a Substack post Jim Wallis wrote on "Reclaiming the Season of Giving."  Wallis wrote about a campaign for Advent to focus less on buying material things.   "The campaign is not about rejecting generosity.  It is about redirecting it.  It challenges us to spend less on things and more on purpose, to strengthen our communities instead of enriching corporations that exploit workers and profit from inequality."  There was also a movement before Thanksgiving called, We Ain't Buying It! urging people to boycott Amazon, Target, and Home Depot for Black Friday through Monday.  That was easy for me because I stopped using Amazon and Target after the last election and will continue to boycott them, unless Target restores their DEI.  Wallis encouraged readers to buy from local and small businesses in our communities and donate to a food bank.  One of the suggestions by Wallis was to make it a family activity to go purchase food for a food bank and deliver it.  "Use this time to talk about gratitude and community."   I am in the process of preparing a talk for my church next week on "Practicing Creative Generosity."  Our focus this Advent is a series of discussions on how our spiritual practices can help us resist "hyper-consumerism" along with other bad habits.  So in preparing this talk, I've been thinking of creative gifts that don't involve spending money.  I remember a year, back when I was younger, where I made every gift.  Back in the days before the Internet when I sewed, knitted, and also did baked goods.  I still knit and I still bake, but I did give up on sewing.  I don't knit as much as I used to, and shipping baked goods is often iffy, but lucky for me, I have an excellent small, local bookstore in the area.   But, I am also going to be creating some unique presents that will be my focus in giving this year.  Not store bought, but something that will provide some happy memories.  If you have some creative gift ideas, I'd love to hear about them in the Comments section.  After I do my talk, I'll share some of my creative ideas.  Closing with a quote attributed to Winston Churchill (may or may not be true):

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."