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Christmas giving
"It's a great way to think of other people during the holidays."
When someone gives you an amazing gift like I got exactly 20 years ago this Christmas, that amazing feeling of gratitude might not come until years later. But looking back, you realize that all those helping hands are what gave you the chance to fight another day.
On any given day in Ottawa you can find the private sector focused on doing its thing, the decision makers on Parliament Hill locked in their latest battle, the media preoccupied with the news of the day and the lobbyists working away behind the scenes on their own interests. But as this holiday season approaches, an amazing thing is pulling all of the various players on and off the Hill together.
If Christmas means giving more and more of myself so that I become less and less of me, then I'll take a pass, thanks. No, instead I intend on receiving Christmas this year. I want Christmas to wash over me in all its glory. This year, I want to focus on accepting the priceless gift of Christmas.
I've always loved the concept of paying it forward. You read about those wonderful generous individuals in Tim Hortons' lines paying for the person behind them and it warms your heart. I recently read about a fellow Canadian blogger, Taslim Jaffer, who is doing her own "pay it forward" in a uniquely creative way.
There's a local campaign in the Greater Toronto Area sponsored by the good folks at the Salvation Army called Toy Mountain. People bring in gifts of new toys that will, we are told, be distributed to children in need. The underlying theme is that there can be nothing worse than for a kid to wake up on Christmas morning without a toy under the tree.
