Strong family ties

Thanksgiving and Giving

When it comes to understanding family, it should be the place where love is the strongest.  It should be the place where peace lingers.  It should be the place where, when you leave, you yearn to come back.  It should be the place where hugs and kisses are commonplace.

It should be.

Sometimes during the Christmas season, there are many who don’t feel the joy and happiness.  There are those who don’t feel the hugs and kisses.  There are some who don’t feel that peace and comfort.  There are those who have no place, no one, and no thing.

Christmas is a season where “reaching out” should be a focus for many.  I like to think I reach out all the time, not using Christmas as a reason to touch lives.  If we only need Christmas to be a giving people, we have become shallow and commercialized.  Thanksgiving and Giving are yearlong goodwill.

Let’s look at the season from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

It is always good to start by being thankful for what we have, whether it is a lot or a little.  Many are not thankful.  It is not bad to want more, but being thankful offers others an insight into our hearts.  Christmas follows the season of Thanksgiving by the focus of giving.  It’s great to give to our families and friends, but can we take a few of our dollars and give to a charity?

How about a homeless shelter?  How about a battered women’s shelter?  How about donating your child’s old toys?  Give your old clothing to Goodwill.  Visit children in hospitals.  It’s interesting that in the middle of the year, donations and support are down.  Are we just cyclical givers?

If we can understand the bigger picture here, it will become clearer.  When you help make the lives of other people better, not only will you gain a sense of kindness, but the effect on the receivers will cause changes in their own lives.  Many of those have become disillusioned with life.  Maybe the loss of marriage or family or death of a loved one.  We may never quite know exactly what kind of effect this can have.  I would love to know that one changed life can then make a difference in another life.

Selfless Acts of Kindness

Your thanksgiving and giving makes a difference.  Let’s start now and not waver in the middle of the year.  People need your kind heart throughout the year.  Let’s change the world around us by selfless acts of kindness.

Merry Christmas  from Bello Romance Photography all year long.