It costs nothing (Week 46)
"There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward."
Kahlil Gibran, who you might be surprised to learn is the 3rd best selling poet of all time (after Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu) has been a guiding light for me ever since I read The Prophet as a teenager. His words about giving are especially wise during the holiday season, with commercialism raging all around us. So, hot on the heels of a week in which I spent nothing, I decided to give a bunch of stuff away. And sure enough, it did bring me joy.
A year ago, Val and I moved from our large Calgary bungalow to a small two-bedroom condo in Victoria. Along the way, we parted with about a third of everything we owned. That included an unforgettable "garage sale" day when everything was marked either $1 or FREE. It was amazing to see how many people went straight for the things marked FREE, even though the much nicer wares were sitting a few feet away at only a buck a piece. Lesson learned: people like free stuff.
This was part of the idea behind the Freecycle Network, whose goal is "changing the world one gift at a time™." It's a global movement with more than 9 million members, and it started shortly after the concept of "freecycling" was born. Besides keeping perfectly decent items out of the landfill, freecycling is also about social change, and "helping others in a lovely little personal way."
When you give something away for nothing, it's a mutual thing. You both feel good. So I can't claim any supreme virtue or moral high ground, since I'm doing it for me too.
My first step in the week was starting a #freecycle Slack channel at work, and then the fun began with some posts. First up was a really nice Patagonia satchel. That was snapped up in a few minutes. Next was a tablet, which came "free" when I renewed my cellphone plan. It went equally quickly. Over the course of the week, I also gave away an AppleTV unit, and a nice IKEA desk lamp. Just when I thought my cupboards were bare of potential giveaways, another one would emerge. Clearly, our possession purge in Calgary hadn't finished the job. Who knows what's next?
Similar to the week in which I de-cluttered my life by following the guidelines of Marie Kondo, this week was both lovely and liberating.
Now I really hope there isn't a pile of stuff waiting for me under the tree. It might not last long.
NEXT WEEK: Binging...on books!
Kahlil Gibran, who you might be surprised to learn is the 3rd best selling poet of all time (after Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu) has been a guiding light for me ever since I read The Prophet as a teenager. His words about giving are especially wise during the holiday season, with commercialism raging all around us. So, hot on the heels of a week in which I spent nothing, I decided to give a bunch of stuff away. And sure enough, it did bring me joy.
A year ago, Val and I moved from our large Calgary bungalow to a small two-bedroom condo in Victoria. Along the way, we parted with about a third of everything we owned. That included an unforgettable "garage sale" day when everything was marked either $1 or FREE. It was amazing to see how many people went straight for the things marked FREE, even though the much nicer wares were sitting a few feet away at only a buck a piece. Lesson learned: people like free stuff.
This was part of the idea behind the Freecycle Network, whose goal is "changing the world one gift at a time™." It's a global movement with more than 9 million members, and it started shortly after the concept of "freecycling" was born. Besides keeping perfectly decent items out of the landfill, freecycling is also about social change, and "helping others in a lovely little personal way."
When you give something away for nothing, it's a mutual thing. You both feel good. So I can't claim any supreme virtue or moral high ground, since I'm doing it for me too.
Similar to the week in which I de-cluttered my life by following the guidelines of Marie Kondo, this week was both lovely and liberating.
Now I really hope there isn't a pile of stuff waiting for me under the tree. It might not last long.
NEXT WEEK: Binging...on books!
Comments
Post a Comment