Every year my friends and family ask me what I want for my birthday or Christmas and every year I say the same thing...world peace and a pedicure....a response which drives most of them crazy. They try to jump on board as much as humanly possible, but it still makes them crazy. Being good little American consumers, they whole-heartedly believe gift giving celebrations require an actual gift to be given. My mom has creatively fulfilled my request during the last three or four Christmases. Each year I find a sealed envelope buried in the branches of my decorated Christmas tree with a letter inside explaining in detail a few of the charities or good causes she has donated to over the last twelve months. The entrees on the list spam the gamut from a typical charitable donation to clothing and household gifts given to a local family who lost everything when their house burned to the ground one cold, wintery night. Always the letter makes me feel blessed to have such a generous parent. And then there was the time several of my friends took me out to dinner and made a generous donation to one of my favorite Guatemalan charities. Great food, fun company and a helping hand...what's not to love about that. But most of the time, my simple request goes unanswered, simply ignored with an eye roll and a grunt of disgust. And then their addiction to consumerism kicks in and I usually end up with some earrings, which I always love, maybe a picture frame or two and some chotskies. Always great gifts....always things that match my taste well.....and always stuff.
So going forward, I'm making this declaration. No more stuff. I want nothing that requires gift wrap and a bow. Worst case, I get nothing bigger than an envelope and it better not contain a gift card....we all know how those things end up. And for that matter, I can buy my own damn pedicures. No, going forward, I will settle for nothing less than world peace. I know it seems a daunting task, I mean, many have tried and failed. There's the Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi, Buddha, Mother Teresa and even a man named Jesus, just to name a few. If they failed, what chance do we really have at changing the world for the better? But on closer inspection I wonder, did they really fail? Everything I've read implies they touched the lives of those around them. They left indelible marks on humankind. Isn't that world peace? Or at least a piece of peace? Isn't that the goal? If we touch the lives around us, doesn't world peace have no choice but to follow? Maybe we're not chipping away at anarchy or disdain, but why not take a swing at improving our own neighborhoods?
So that's my gift request. From now on, I want your piece of peace. If you decorated a cloth square to be stitched into a quilt and given to a homeless child in Haiti, that's a piece of peace. If you're in the grocery store and you see a mother who's obviously having trouble making ends meet and you quietly slip a $20 bill into her purse, that's a piece of peace. If you drive passed a lost kitten and take the time to bring it home for a bath and food before dropping it off at a no-kill shelter, that's a piece of peace. If you make cookies for your old lady neighbor who annoys you on a daily basis because she allows her yappy little dog to use your front yard as a bathroom, that's a piece of peace. None of these actions may bring peace to the middle east, but it's a start. You never know how your one act of kindness affects humankind....or how it will affect you. Just a piece of peace. One size fits all and no shopping required.
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