Reach Blog
The Gift
Written on Friday, November 28, 2008
By: Carina Merio
Every day most of us are working to better our lives. We go to work, further our education, take lessons, meet people, read books, socialize, work out... This is the human spirit - we evolve and grow and improve in the hopes that our lives can be fruitful and good. We do these things and more, and the cycle continues, day after day, year after year. Some of us have babies and hope to pass on the fruits of our labor to our children...so that their lives will be fruitful and good.
How wonderful it is to live where we do, with opportunities abound, that enable us to be who want to be and perhaps live as we would like or at least close to how we would like!
After Africa this summer I realized something about life beyond all of this. Something that my dear grandfather taught me when I was too young to truly understand...that we are all here to give a gift in return for the gift that we have been given (the gift of life of course). Our gift should not be material nor self-improvement, nor should it be anything that could disappear... including human life. This gift would be unidentifiable...something you can't see.... and it is certainly a gift that we can give every single day for the rest of our lives. When the holiday season arrives, the cloud of consumerism wafts through the spirit of what lies buried sometimes… How easy it is to recall… the spirit of who we are by giving a gift. The gift is simply to care.
Who we are as a person is not defined by how often we work out, how much money we have, what clothes we possess, our status...it is how we perceive life. Do we judge? Do we fight? Do we love unconditionally or with condition? Do we seek? Do we control? Do we have faith? Do we care? These are what we take with us when we are done here...AND these are the things that have an effect on the world and people around us.
By reaching out to others, we are reaching into ourselves and nourishing the best part of ourselves which is our soul - our spirit. This holiday how wonderful would it be, if we substituted one hour of shopping to simply reading a world newspaper and understanding what people are going through across the oceans. What would that do, you ask? It would enlighten, create concern and awareness, create dialogue, enable a deeper appreciation for where we are...it could mean more than just simply reading the stories, if one reads with care.
How wonderful would it be if instead of attending a social event we took the time for just two hours to serve food at a home for the elderly homeless in NYC? You couldn't even ask what good that would do! You would probably smile more sincerely and deeply doing the latter.
So, by reaching out, we can reach in and rediscover who we are and why our spirit is important to the world around us. By giving the gift of a tiny fraction of our time to honor the world that we live in, we could in fact...make a difference. We could make the holidays about what is most important.
Commit to doing something small and special this Christmas.... Something that you can't touch but touches another human being.
Care :-)
To read more written by Carina, visit http://reachoutreachin.blogspot.com/
By: Carina Merio
Every day most of us are working to better our lives. We go to work, further our education, take lessons, meet people, read books, socialize, work out... This is the human spirit - we evolve and grow and improve in the hopes that our lives can be fruitful and good. We do these things and more, and the cycle continues, day after day, year after year. Some of us have babies and hope to pass on the fruits of our labor to our children...so that their lives will be fruitful and good.
How wonderful it is to live where we do, with opportunities abound, that enable us to be who want to be and perhaps live as we would like or at least close to how we would like!
After Africa this summer I realized something about life beyond all of this. Something that my dear grandfather taught me when I was too young to truly understand...that we are all here to give a gift in return for the gift that we have been given (the gift of life of course). Our gift should not be material nor self-improvement, nor should it be anything that could disappear... including human life. This gift would be unidentifiable...something you can't see.... and it is certainly a gift that we can give every single day for the rest of our lives. When the holiday season arrives, the cloud of consumerism wafts through the spirit of what lies buried sometimes… How easy it is to recall… the spirit of who we are by giving a gift. The gift is simply to care.
Who we are as a person is not defined by how often we work out, how much money we have, what clothes we possess, our status...it is how we perceive life. Do we judge? Do we fight? Do we love unconditionally or with condition? Do we seek? Do we control? Do we have faith? Do we care? These are what we take with us when we are done here...AND these are the things that have an effect on the world and people around us.
By reaching out to others, we are reaching into ourselves and nourishing the best part of ourselves which is our soul - our spirit. This holiday how wonderful would it be, if we substituted one hour of shopping to simply reading a world newspaper and understanding what people are going through across the oceans. What would that do, you ask? It would enlighten, create concern and awareness, create dialogue, enable a deeper appreciation for where we are...it could mean more than just simply reading the stories, if one reads with care.
How wonderful would it be if instead of attending a social event we took the time for just two hours to serve food at a home for the elderly homeless in NYC? You couldn't even ask what good that would do! You would probably smile more sincerely and deeply doing the latter.
So, by reaching out, we can reach in and rediscover who we are and why our spirit is important to the world around us. By giving the gift of a tiny fraction of our time to honor the world that we live in, we could in fact...make a difference. We could make the holidays about what is most important.
Commit to doing something small and special this Christmas.... Something that you can't touch but touches another human being.
Care :-)
To read more written by Carina, visit http://reachoutreachin.blogspot.com/
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