Resolution: Time is the best gift

Does the perfect gift exist?

We live in a world of constant noise and peripheral chaos. Our money is often spent before we deposit the paycheck and the horizon sometimes seems scarier than anything we've ever left behind. Finances are tight but that doesn't really bother the calendar hanging on our wall because those days keep advancing without ever consulting us. The time of year for gifts has finally rounded third and is unabashedly heading straight for home plate. The only question is whether that plate will be bare or loaded with wonderful festive items.

I work at a place where the majority of the people do not have a great deal of money. When the topic of holiday giving raises its commercial head, one might think that the conversation grows tense and uncomfortable, but that is rarely the case. On many occasions, I have learned quite a lot from Samaritan House residents on the subject of giving. What is the most valuable thing a person can give another? My experiences at the shelter have shown me that the greatest gift is time.

In a society of fabricated community, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets are prime examples of how real intimacy is going extinct and being replaced with cyber relationships a mile wide but an inch deep. Spending time with a person now consists of logging on to check their status before you post a quick blurb on their wall? Am I missing something?

Oh, yeah... Conversation.

Take this holiday season as an opportunity to reconnect with your friends and family on a more personable level. Sit down and talk or go for a walk or just turn every electronic device in your house off and enjoy the quiet together. Get back to the basics of relationship, even if it's just a brief respite before the new year begins and you have to plug back in. Our residents spend hours together just talking and I fear this is a lost art. If you have no one to chat with in your life, then come down to Samaritan House and chew the fat with our residents because it will be an experience that makes you a better person.

And it's free.