Fleeting Guilt and Receeding Cash

Currently sitting at the old chemo pump, quenching my body's thirst for cancer annoying poison. It's not often I get to write like this during an actual chemo treatment. Since I don't actually have a topic in mind (I rarely do) this will either prove to be very interesting or completely boring. I refuse to have anything in between those extremes.

The holiday season is upon us and whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Solstice or Festivus... you are most likely preparing to celebrate or in the middle of said celebration! And you should be. We all should be finding every reason we can to rejoice in our loved ones and the purpose of the season.

Occasionally I run in to someone who seems, for lack of a better word, grumpy. Upon gently pushing the conversation it inevitably comes out that they're worried about money and getting all the gifts they need to get. The solution for this problem is simple, but difficult to put into action. Just stop buying. If we really think about it, most of the gifts we get for our friends and family are not things they need. Or, in some cases, even want. We get these things, for the most part, because we want people to know we've thought of them, or love them, or out of guilt.

This year Kristin and I made a blanket statement to our friends that went something like this, "Money is super tight this year. We won't be buying gifts for friends and ask that you refrain from buying for us. We'd love to exchange cards though and spend time with each of you as you're available." Some people will surely still get us a gift. We will most assuredly feel some fleeting guilt for not reciprocating. But we can only do what we have the ability to do. We've had to accept our situation. In fact, we'll only be buying for each other as a result of the gift of a very gracious couple at our church and, even then, won't spend much. Their gift was very generous, but we have too many bills to spend it all on Christmas. Still... it'll be nice to give Kristin a full stocking on Christmas morning.

For each holiday of this season, whichever you celebrate, you'll not that gift giving is not the purpose of the celebration. This year, in this economic recession, may be a good opportunity to reflect and inspect the reason we choose to celebrate what and when we do.

In my case, it' Christmas. I'll be celebrating the freedom I have through Jesus and the hope that He gives me. Happy Christmas all.