Giving Differently
By Sarah Patterson – Special to SUNonline/Orillia
The holiday season is upon us. We are, of course, not the first to reflect on the irony of how a time of year intended to focus on gratitude, light, and love has been co-opted to be a time of extreme consumerism. But recently Robin Wall-Kimmerer’s new book The Serviceberry – Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World was released. It could not have come at a more opportune time. Inspired by the wisdom of nature, Wall-Kimmerer beautifully captures the sentiment of gratitude that receiving a gift inspires, and how it naturally leads to a desire to reciprocate.
There are two important nuances to explore in this idea of reciprocity. The first is that the gifts she is talking about are not the trinkets many of us are exchanging this time of year, but rather the myriad ways in which we are surrounded by exchanges that make life possible in the first place. Secondly, this is not reciprocating in a transactional, tit-for-tat, kind of way but rather how we receive the gift in the spirit of gratitude and humility that a true gift evokes, and how that inevitably inspires us to want to contribute to the mutual flourishing of the systems around us.
There are so many wonderful gifts we receive from Mother Earth. These include the oxygen we breathe, the food gifted to us by the soil and the miracle of photosynthesis, the water that balances and refreshes our bodies, the sun with its power to provide energy for everything on Earth, and of course the gift of each other.
This holiday season, we choose to focus on the gifts that we have and ways we can reciprocate them. The philosopher John Searles is credited with the quote, “The meaning of life is to love, to laugh, and to make a difference—to have it mean something that you lived at all.” We couldn’t agree more. The season of celebration is a time for gathering, sharing, and expressing gratitude.
Kimmerer reminds us, “gift economies arise from an understanding of earthly abundance and the attitude it generates. A perception of abundance, based on the notion that there is enough if we share it, underlies economies of mutual support.”We invite you to join us in reflecting on the gifts that surround us and the gratitude that they engender when we choose to look at things from this perspective. We also invite you to reflect on ways we can reciprocate the gifts of the earth by being kinder to our planet.”
Here are some ideas for a more sustainable holiday season:
- Give the gift of your time – you can give loved ones experiences rather than material things.
- Donate to a cause or charity that is meaningful to you
- Volunteer and help make the holidays brighter for others
- Buy less, buy local, buy sustainable
- Wrap your present in a present (for example, a tea towel.). The paper waste we generate at this time of year is mind-boggling
Sustainable Orillia wishes you a season of abundance and reciprocity – and love.
(Images Supplied)
