giving in gratitude

my friend, maria, is sponsoring a contest...she wants to know what giving means to her friends. and here's my post: (and also, happy birthday maria!)

I give because I am thankful. To show that I am thankful. And grateful. And appreciative.

I realize that in my life thus far I have been given many, many amazing experiences because someone else chose to allow me the opportunity. Experiences that have nothing to do with how much money we (didn't) have or what kind of clothes we wore or food we ate--instead ones that taught me about God and about love and about sailing and photography and how to tie a sheepshank or slide into homebase. Or take care of this earth on which we are so lucky to live.

Someone else gave their time. I now choose to give mine.

to return the favor, to complete the circle, to follow the Golden Rule.

I also realize that a good part of why I am so thankful is because of the skill sets and life experiences and knowledge that I have gained. And that is why my organization of choice today is the Heifer Foundation. If you don't know who they are--from their website "Heifer Foundation envisions a sustainable world where hunger and poverty no longer exist. Its mission is to partner with people in the global movement to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth."

They teach people in impoverished places how to care for livestock, which will provide them both a source of food AND a source of income if they sell their extras. Their goal is to help people become self-reliant--teaching the man to fish instead of just feeding him for a day, as it were. We often supported them in my church growing up--we had these cute little Noah's Ark collection banks--but I didn't really *get* it until just a few years ago.

Thank you, Maria, for giving me the opportunity to think through this--it gave me a nice little recharge. :) And thanks for putting on the contest, too!