29 Gifts-Day 1

A large theme throughout 29 gifts is the author's experience with an African spirituality that fueled her giving experiment. Although I may not agree with the beliefs or divination rituals of this type of "religion" I appreciate the focus of living life generously.

In my own Christian faith I am a firm believer that we only have the ability to give because we were first given to. 1 John 4:19 says, "We love because He first loved us." It is only out of His love that we are capable of giving love to others.

I need not have been worried about forgetting to give a gift during this first day of my giving cycle. I was amazed at how many opportunities I was given to consciously choose to give.

The first gift I gave today was to write a few encouraging words to some spiritual mentors of mine who have been experiencing their fair share of tragedy. The humorous part of this is I realized halfway through the day that I worded my message incorrectly to them and the meaning was significantly altered because of my mistake. I went back later in the day to correct myself and hope they can find encouragement from my letter and maybe get a laugh as well.

The second gift I gave was to donate $1 to the Lou Gherig's Foundation that the CVS cashier asked me about at the end of my transaction. Those type of questions usually just irritate me because most of the time I hang my head in shame as I mutter "no thank you" under my breath, grab my receipt and run for the door so the person behind me in line doesn't think I'm a cheapskate (which I guess I am.) Anyway, even though $1 is really not a big deal it felt good to be able to say confidently, "Sure!" and know that this was part of my conscious choice to give.

If you are wondering what I'm talking about with this "29 gifts" read this post here and consider joining me in this movement!