giving

GIVING
thats what christmas should be about
giving
and
not receiving

ive thought a lot about christmas
and
how we all go crazyeyed over shopping
just look at black friday and black thanksgiving

people yes thats many of you are just crazy
to go out into that maize of inhumanity
to shop
for stuff you they really dont need

we have maybe overdone christmas some in the past
but each year we are getting better at making it
more reasonable

heck
weve even reduced our tree down to a true
charlie brown christmas tree
surrounding it with our gifts

now im writing this
before we get our new grand baby
what im about to write may change all that some
but not the central theme

a relative of mine whose name will be kept anonymous
but if you are kin to me you already know who he is
gives gift certificates to folks from an organization
that makes loans to folks in poor countries

i have parlayed his initial gift as they were repaid
and
as i added more funds
to several hundreds of dollars out there loaned to
folks in the us and central america
mainly nicaragua
since i like those people a lot

so his little christmas gift now does good for folks
in these countries
my loans have been to farmers shop owners pharmacies
restaurant owners
many of them female
so far i have never had any of them not pay back a loan
you dont see that in the us do you

then
sometimes he donates the gift in your name to
a scholarship program

now thats what christmas should really be about
shouldnt it
giving
and
not all that black friday stuff

what if we all made our kids gift stuff at christmas
to those in need
maybe lets say
50% of  our christmas budget
which gift do you think that kiddo gets the most
from
and
which one he/she would really remember years from now

so this year
my wife she and i decided to downsize our christmas
budget
it doesnt make sense to spend those dollars
lets give it away to those in need


so this year
we will give 25% of our gifts to our loved ones
in the form of gift certificates that they will
use to help others
so we will start out doing www.kiva.org gift cards to
each
which they can go online and loan to some one in need
here in the us and in the rest of the world
as its repaid
then reloan it


courtesy of www.tyrellmara.com

we will expand that each year
it just seems the right thing to do

the organicgreen doctor

christmas, giving or gifting

CHRISTMAS
nice christmas
spent it with my two brothers and their wifes
my historian brother he and my rainwater brother he

we potlucked it
actually had a nice vegetarian christmas meal
ok i did sneak in some christmas ham
made me a large pot of greens from the garden-turnip greens, kale,
asian cabbage, cabbage, spinach, swiss chard, onions, garlic
all organic
my wife she added her corn bread
all went well with the other food

my wife she and i had a private christmas earlier in the morining
where we opened our gifts together in front of our fire in our
wood burning stove
very picturesque

my proudest gift was a rogue hoe
now i have two hoes
this rougue hoe will last forever
sort of like your wife
it will easily be used in this rocky hard soil around here
cant wait to dig things up with it

overall a great christmas
hope to repeat it next year

GIVING OR GIFTING
have thought a lot about christmas this year
we do approach it all wrong
just watch tv at all the ads for stuff we dont really need
it should be about giving not gifting

my relative gave me a gift card this year
it was to www.kiva.org
the gift was for $25 and i went online and registered to kiva

kiva is a organization that gives microloans to people all over the
world usually to start or improve their businesses
they then pay the money back
there are very few defaults

the last one i did was to a guy in florida who needed $5000
to start his own lawnmower business
so donors of all over the world donate $25 a piece and kiva
loaned him the money
he has already paid 10% of it back in a few weeks

when these loans are paid back i will then re loan the money back
to some one else
my relative has tripled the amount of money he has loaned over the years
as he just continues to roll the money over into new loans

those dam banks would never ever loan these people this money
like the guy in florida
can just see shank of america loaning a new immigrant $5000 to
start a new business

give next christmas instead of gifting
so many of us and our kids already have too much as it is
give to someone who needs it more
or like with kiva give to those who are trying to improve themselves

give

the organicgreen doctor