Building The Love Shack

 

We just celebrated Thanksgiving in Canada. In the next month, the United States of America will celebrate Thanksgiving, and then of course there is Christmas, and many other celebrations all over the world.

The one thing all of our countries have in common, is people living in poverty.

At this time of the year many families and homeless will be looking for food to celebrate the holiday meal. At all times of the year the homeless, and lower income families need help.

A few years back after listening to a friend of mine who works as a mail carrier, I realized that all those Christmas Cards we send, create an astronomical amount of work for the mail carriers over all over the world.

I might add they also create a lot of pollution in the paper processing, cut down trees and then end up in the garbage. Some how this didn’t set well with me.

I came up with my own solution to Wishing My Friends a Merry Christmas. Each year I post on Face Book this same message. ” Your Christmas Cards have been sent. The Homeless Shelter has received a donations. I have sent my cheque to the Homeless Shelter on behalf of all of you. Merry Christmas.”

My solution, was to look at the amount of money I spent on the cards and the postage stamps, and each year I send that to the shelter. Better for the environment, the postman’s back and the homeless.

When I was blessed with the good fortune of being able to Build The Love Shack, I again looked at what else I could do. It seemed to me that I owed someone, somewhere, a thank you for bring us to where we are today.

For that, I started buying each month, one of those bags that the grocery store has pre-made to put in the bins for the food banks.

So once a month, religiously, I pick up one of those bags and put in the bin before I leave the store.

Recently, when I was shopping, I remembered a conversation I had with a patient when I worked in psychiatry.  The patient was making a cup of herbal tea and said to me ” It’s so nice here at the hospital, I can’t believe they actually have teas for us.”

I never told the patient this, the hospital didn’t buy the teas. I did. Which brought me to the next thing I have added.

I’m a gourmet cook. I have at least fifteen bottles of flavored oils and vinegar’s in my cupboard at any time. I can’t tell you how many spices and teas, I have from all around the world.

This got me thinking about how food is not only a necessities, but also a pleasure in our lives.

I have now added something to my monthly donations to the food bank. Each month I watch to see what is on sale. When I make my monthly donations I add, a bottle of flavored oil, a herbal tea, a unique sauce or something that would be out of the budget for someone on a fixed income.

I hope someone in my city has been given a little more pleasure from these simple act of kindness, and I hope someone out there reading this will like one of my ideas and join me.

I would love the hear back from anyone who has a special act of kindness that they do.

Please feel free to share this idea.