Day 3- ❦ The value is in the story

Day 3

The Gift(s): African necklace and matching skirt to our exchange student; United States & Denmark lapel pins and African suns for our exchange student and host parents.

Today, was a challenge because I had so many giving opportunities, I had to face several questions early in the day:

• Are multiple giving opportunities okay?
• Can multiple giving opportunities count against future days that may not offer as many opportunities?           
• Is it okay to count birthday gifts as part of the daily giving mission?

Because I had not established any rules or guidelines to this giving exercise (including how long I was going to try this) and given the fact that I am a rule-oriented person this entire process has been a huge leap of faith for me. I am actually surprised that it wasn’t until Day 3 that a conflict arose in my mind about multiple giving opportunities. The question created enough angst in me that I realized that I did not want to have to go through this question every time a multiple giving opportunity presented itself. The angst was derived from the fact that I knew if I created a rule that said one giving opportunity is all I am doing that I would be creating a perpetual conflict with my very core. Giving is a crucial part of my being and my purpose and to set arbitrary limits would pose many problems. Needless to say, I felt a great deal of relief when I settled upon establishing my first guideline that allows for multiple giving opportunities.

GUIDELINE # 1 - Multiple giving opportunities in one day are okay.

But because I thrive on a certain amount of angst, right away establishing Guideline #1 created new challenges regarding banking multiple giftings. Okay, probably not angst, but a little laziness slipped in. Just think how easy it would be to keep track of the multiple gifts and count them on the tough (or dry) days? And as easy as that would be, the ethical part of me decided that I needed to take the more difficult road on this one and that it might actually be fun to see what I pulled out of the air on those dry days.

GUIDELINE # 2 - Multiple giving opportunities can not be banked to be counted toward future credit.

Okay, now that I have that worked out I still need to deal with a stickler - where does giving for birthdays and other celebrations fit into the exercise? I had to go for a walk to work this out. When I was done, I landed on the concept that giving for birthdays might be okay. Now, keep in mind that I have already determined that today I have at least two other giving opportunities and do not feel pressured at this moment to really answer this question. However I answer the question will not have a net effect on the day - I will still give the birthday gift and have other opportunities to give. That being said, I know that this will continue to come up as a dilemma so I decided not to decide, but to ruminate about it and allow the gift to be included in my daily giving mission.

As it turned out, all of the gifts that were given that evening were really fun to give. Our exchange student enjoyed the African jewelry and skirt that I brought back from my recent trip to Togo and Ghana and I got to tell the story about Street Aid, a refuge for girls who live and work on the streets with their babies who are learning a new trade like batiking, sewing, making jewelry where I had purchased the skirt and necklace as a means of supporting their efforts. It was fun to give a thank you gift to the host families who had hosted our student with so much caring and compassion - and while a simple lapel pin may seem like a pretty cheap gift, I really used them as a means of publicly thanking each of them for their dedication and commitment to our student. I realized during this evening that I often use the gift as a means of telling a greater story or thanking someone for something far greater than a gift can possibly match in value.


❦ The value is in the story.