With the holidays swiftly approaching
and the Occupy movement finding new legs, we should be seriously
considering where to cast our purchase-power votes for the holidays.
Already the pollution factories in China are shifting into high gear to
produce the cheap, throw-away goods that first-world cultures have
supported for decades. Let’s all band together decrease this mindless
addiction and pollution this year, shall we?
Christmas marks the return of the sun after the winter solstice—the
resurrection of light and the perseverance of unconditional love
(symbolized by birth of Jesus) which nature manifests each year in the
new life and returning warmth of springtime from the desolate depths of
winter. Hanukah celebrates the endurance of light as the miracle of a
tiny amount of oil that unexpectedly burned and gave light for 8 days.
With the trillions of dollars spent each
year on gift-buying, we owe it to the revolution now afoot for justice
and the protection of the Earth—to our collective health on every
level—to support our local economies this holiday season.
Here are a few sustainable and creative,
if not revolutionary, gift ideas to support the planet and a truer
light for the holidays.
CONSERVATION GIFTS –
Support one of the many environmental organizations working to protect
the rights of animals, plants, and Nature by lending your bucks to
protect endangered species, fight pollution, sue a polluter, revive
oceans, and save wild places. Donate to a charity of your liking on
behalf of your gift recipient. Here is a link for these and more:
https://www.nrdcgreengifts.org
LOCAL ARTISTS
– Original artwork captures care in physical form, both via the images
and message present, as well as the labor of love that went into making
it. In your community there are likely dozens and dozens of artists
dedicating themselves to their passion. Give them some love this year
and give the gift of local art.
Beekeepers that provide local honey and
pollen (bless the struggling honeybees and beekeepers that assist
them!), local chocolate-makers, basket weavers, furniture-makers, poets
and authors, musicians for hire at parties, seamstresses, and organic
food growers can all be hit up for gifts.
Break the mold of typical gifts!
Exercise some creativity of your own and make an organic vegetable
basket for a gift and add some chocolate or homemade jam to the basket. A
great idea is to plant an herb garden for your folks or children. You
can even make one out of a wooden planter if there is no ground to plant
in and include a list of what the culinary and medicinal uses of the
herbs are.
HEALING – Give the gift
of massage, acupuncture, chiropractic, herbal therapies, spa treatment,
nature adventure or a gift certificate to a retreat center.
HOME AND YARD MAINTENANCE
– Support your local non-toxic cleaning people and buy a gift
certificate for housecleaning, non-toxic car-washing or dry-cleaning.
Purchase the services of local land workers. Suggest to an organic
gardener that you’d like to hire her/him (or employee) to start a
vegetable garden for the person you know who has always wanted to, but
hasn’t been able to get over the hump to turn the soil for years.
Purchase a non-power tool tree-trimming gift certificate, or a
hand-mowing (I do all my lawns with a manual push mower) lawn service.
LOCAL RESTAURANTS AND HEALTH FOOD STORES
– Support local restaurants and food producers, especially those that
source their produce organically and locally. Visit your local farmer’s
market and buy a gift certificate for locally produced goods.
TRADE – Instead of just
purchasing some thing, give the gift of love in action. What creative
passion and love of yours has gone undeveloped for too long, or would be
a true joy for you to give the gift of your time? Offer it as a holiday
gift! Is it gardening, babysitting, painting, building something,
writing, cooking, pottery-making, auto-detailing? The list is endless.
What is your labor of love to share for the holidays?
OTHER IDEAS
~ Give something of quality over more quantity.
~ Make decorations, or even gifts, using “junk” or recycled products.
~ Recycle wrapping paper or use towels
or paper bags to wrap your gifts (break with wasteful tradition). If you
have to use paper, try to get FSC (Forestry Stewardship Certified)
paper.
~ Maybe you will choose to express your holiday love in words, music, dance, or song?… instead of purchasing a ready-made thing?
~ Gift something enduring, beautiful,
and more necessary instead of something temporarily amusing,
superficial, and ultimately wasteful and banal.
~ Try making your own cards!
IF YOU GIFT A BOOK, consider making it
an educational, inspiring one for a greener future. There are hundreds,
if not thousands, of books out now on the subject.
More than ever we need to mind how we
vote with our money, our time and energy. Whatever your gift this
holiday season, consider where it comes from, the love that went into
making it, the effects it has had and will have on the environment and
the recipient, how long it will last, and how it will help stoke the
light of the hearts that participated in making, buying, and receiving
it.
If it meets the integrity of your
conscious heart, it will likely be a gift that keeps giving long after
the charade of the holidays has passed and we are left with the
despicable reality of trillions of tons of waste and human insult that
spoils the planet and besmirches the true light we need to protect and
nourish in the challenging years to come.
Amen.
