Community Engagement

 December 2023               
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F: Going Green at 70 by Nancy MacRae

Hey there Green Beans, I’ve been thinking a lot about the holiday season coming up and trying to avoid the non-stop commercials on TV and online about all the deals that are on. I’m tired of people being enticed to spend huge amounts of money even when they can’t afford it. Often parents get roped into buying their kids the latest and greatest because they know their friends will be showing their haul come Boxing Day. The sad thing is kids don’t understand if their parents can’t afford it.

I was at the food bank the other day delivering some stuff and I got very emotional. There were so many people in line getting their groceries and yet there was such laughter in the crowd. As I was leaving a woman stopped me and offered me some Kraft Dinner because she wasn’t a fan. I nearly cried. The reality is – there by the grace of God go each one of us.

Maybe this year one idea would be to take your kids to the grocery store buy a good basket full of food and take it over to the food bank. If you do this sort of thing, bravo! But if you haven’t thought of it, maybe your kids would benefit from knowing about food banks.

Try the second-hand stores for gifts. I got a great Christmas ornament at Forbes on Stellarton Road for a friend and I know she’ll love it.

Donate money to a friend’s charity. Get crafty and make something. Crafting is not in my wheelhouse so I am going to try my hand at making cranberry sauce, how hard can that be? Plus, I do bake a mean cranberry bundt cake. These are gifts that show you care every bit as much as big pricey gifts. And it is about caring!

Please, if you are wrapping stuff – stay away from the glitter, foil paper, and basically anything shiny because it can’t be recycled.  Instead of ribbons and bows try raffia. Better still make cloth gift bags, that would be great and the recipient could definitely reuse them!!

Let’s all try and make one change this holiday season.

This is our modern curse: A century of conspicuous consumption has trained us to be dutiful citizens of the Republic of Not Enough, swearing allegiance to the marketable myth of scarcity … Along the way, we have unlearned how to live wide-eyed with wonder at … the “little joys” – those unpurchasable, unstorable emblems of aliveness that abound the moment we look up from our ledger of lack. —Maria Popova, “The Marginalian” Until 2024, stay green!!!