December is moving waaaay too quickly for me! Here’s the second part of my Gifts to Give holiday list, with real gifts you can give this year.
3. The Gift of Hands
A lot of people offer you good ideas for your work and life (including yours truly.) That’s great. But one of my favorite gifts is to also lend you my hands.
What action can I take for you–pick up the kids? Make some dinner? How can I help–come over for the massive desk cleaning-a-ganza, or scrape the ice off your windshield? Where can I pitch in, work with you, and relieve some of your stress? We hesitate to ask–or we ask so generically that no one takes us up on our gift, or worse, thinks we aren’t sincere.
But we all can use a friend’s hands, helping put ideas into motion with tangible action –fingers on a keyboard, legs on the pavement, arms around a torso. The hands can pick up where the head leaves off. Where could you use some hands right now–and who could use yours?
4. The Gift of a Giggle
For some of us, the bellylaughs came few and far between this year, amid economic challenges, workplace changes, personal battles. Heck, I’m not even sure I saw a movie that truly made me laugh out loud (have not yet seen “The Muppets,” so there’s hope).
But there were smiles and chuckles that emerged, sometimes just as simple acknowledgements of the silliness of our workplaces, our society, and our families. Just take a look at your Facebook feed, and you’ll uncover a guffaw or two you may have forgotten. The gift I can give you this holiday is to stop trying to be so serious and start giving good giggle.
P.S. It’s a gift you can give right back–with no fear of regifting.
5. The Gift of Words
No matter how much we edit them to 140 character messages or vowel-less texts, words still matter.
“Thank you” makes an impact. “Great job” says volumes. “I appreciate you. . . trust you . . . am grateful for you. . .” Can anyone tire of gifts like that?
Writing, speaking, and really meaning our words creates a gift no one will forget. Worried about using the right words? Don’t be. As long as they are coming from your heart, they’ll be right enough.
So that’s my list of real gifts for this year. Others on my list are time, patience, energy, enthusiasm, listening, appreciation, and of course, love and joy. Now where do I find a box to fit all of those??
What are the gifts you’re giving this year? Tell us about it by replying in the box below, or visiting us on Facebook.
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