The Gift of Giving

It is now Thursday and I am 2 weeks behind in my Tuesday's Tip, so I am going incorporate it into my blog about our recent activities.

On Monday night started the holiday Purim which I mentioned in my last blog. It is the story of Queen Esther. The Megillah goes like this. An evil king named Asheverous ruled Persia and lived in the capital city of Shushan. He has a party in his 3rd year of rule and gets drunk. When his wife refuses to come to him during the party his henchmen suggest she be hanged for disobeying the king. After the party, the king has no wife and is bummed, thats OK say his men, "you can get a new one!" Enter Queen Esther the Jew, the woman he picked to be his new wife. Her Uncle Mordechai hangs out at the palace gates, figures out a plot to kill the king and saves the day. But meanwhile the king's most trusted advisor has it in for Mordechai and decides to kill him and the rest of the Jewish people. But after 3 days of fasting and a plea from the queen, a miracle occurrs and the king overturns the evil decree, the Jews fight back and the evil advisor and his sons are hanged on the gallows as punishment. It is from then on decreed that Jews should eat and drink to celebrate, provide gifts to the poor so that they to
may celebrate and hear the story of the Megillah every year.

On Purim we are obligated to 3 things, 1)So we make food baskets, which I actually did do, although we skipped dessert, but added a pickle to go with the kugel and everyone got wine. 2) Gifts to the poor which is monetary, so that even those who have no money can run out and buy food for a meal or give baskets to others. And 3)Hear the Megillah.

We did have our friends for our meal in the end, she is still quite pregnant and we went into Jerusalem today. A good time was had by all both days.

So where does my tip come in? My tip is, it is the simple things in life that count. As part of our food baskets to two friends we got them new KoomKooms. These are the same idea as hot water pots, but more durable and bigger. This is one of those things that EVERYONE has. Some people may not have a microwave, but this is something we all have. Since I am a tea addict I would lay down and give it all up if mine died. They are not expensive, they can be found for as cheap as $8 and as pricey as $25. I have no idea what the difference is. But as we all know sometimes spending that little extra money on ourselves can be hard. So when I discovered that our local store had the koomkooms on sale for $8, I knew we had to include it. Both friends were so pleased that it really made me happy. But the second person we did it for I also got 2 glasses to go with as she did not have any. Just tiney tea cups. And the look on her face was priceless. The whole thing cost us so very little, but to her it was priceless. I admit, I would not spend the money on my self. I always feel like it should go to groceries or bills, or saving it, but to buy it for someone else and have them see it as if it were a $200.00 gift was just heart warming. And in that moment I really treasured the words it is better to give than to receive.

So my tip is this: If you know that someone needs a pick me up, but you feel you don't have much, look around because one small item made or bought may make all the difference to someone else. Ideas when you are broke, but you want to cheer up a friend, 1) See if there is an album or song they want, most places only charge $1 if you want to be PC about the whole thing. 2) Make or buy a treat like cookies or a cake. People love treats when they can't afford to buy them. 3)Invite them over for a meal, they may have less to eat at home than you do!
4) If it is a tired mom, offer to give her a break and take the kid(s) for an hour or two OR go with her to run errands and help with kid(s). I have discovered that helping my friends with new babies while D watches ours is actually fun for me. Because hey, new babies don't talk back and when they cry, well, hey she's not mine so that is OK! 5)Send someone a card even if they only live around the corner. people love getting snail mail! Or even an e-mail telling them why they are so great will do.
In these times of financial struggle for us all I have found that people hate asking for help and are embarrassed to do so, but they need to feel they are not a failure and that they are still worthwhile person. Doing simple things for someone else can really boost their self esteem. Remember what comes around goes around!