Holidays.
Some people love them and some people hate them. Personally, I am a sucker for the Jim Carrey Grinch and Christmas themed pajamas, along with watching the snowfall and cozying up with family you haven’t spent time with in a while. Gift giving is a huge thing on peoples’ minds because the holidays provide a time to give those special to you a gift to remind them that they are wonderful and cared for. These are just a few of the things that traditionally float through people’s heads as Christmas Day draws closer and closer.
Holidays can also be times of great stress, with family members trying to buy the perfect gift they have been hunting for, those who have been working for months to plan the perfect Christmas party, and others who are desperately trying to send out that killer Christmas card they have been working on since August. I’ve noticed that this has the tendency to make Christmas feel like a stressful event people want to be over with. It can also bring up feelings of guilt for those that do not have enough to give those they love an extravagant Christmas, and those that have a plethora of resources, but have enough self awareness to know others are struggling during the holidays.
But I’m going to let you in on a secret: it doesn’t matter! It does not matter if every person in your family gets one gift, if your tree is too small, if the party doesn’t go quite right, if you say something unkind in an overwhelming time on Christmas Day, or if you weren’t able to buy your parents the perfect gift they’ve been wanting. Holidays are about gathering with those you love. Gathering and celebrating that a new year is on the horizon and everyone survived the one that has passed. The location doesn’t matter. Getting to December is an accomplishment every single year, especially for college students with final exams, and I wholeheartedly believe more people should view it this way.
Gratitude is difficult. It’s way easier to slip into a negative, pessimistic, “Scrooge” type mindset if you’re not feeling the holiday joy, rather than making an honest effort to name each thing that is positive in your life. Being grateful is not something that occurs without some sort of conscious effort at first, and the current state of the world certainly isn’t making the act of gratitude easy. Yet, there is importance to counting all the little things that make your life sweet. “In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships” (Harvard Health, 2021). In other words, it plants hope and the continuation of gratitude each day nourishes that, until one day hope is rooted in your person so deep it is immovable. I believe that’s a goal we should all strive for one day, and it’s okay to take the journey of gratitude slowly.
My journey is slow yet steady, and as long as I make progress each day, I consider it a win. Another important thing around the holidays is to give back and spread the good fortune and holiday cheer you personally have. There are so many disadvantaged families and individuals out there who wish to make their Christmas’ beautiful, despite a lack of resources to do it with.
Whether you donate your time by volunteering at organizations that offer assistance to families in need or you donate your resources, there are plenty of ways to give back this holiday season and pay it forward. Here are some places to volunteer or donate to within the Lansing area:
Southside Community Kitchen
http://www.southsidecommunitykitchen.org/volunteer.html
Southside Community Kitchen is a 501 © 3 non-profit organization. They are currently partnering with and operating out of Unitarian Universalist of Greater Lansing, a multi-faith church for those who seek more joy, wisdom, and meaning in modern life according to their website. This soup kitchen provides nutritious meals on a regular schedule to guests in the community, most of whom are below the poverty level and are already making do on a limited budget. Those that volunteer here usually come in weekly or monthly to assist with meal prep, serving beverages and meals to guests, and cleaning up after the meal. This organization also accepts financial donations. More information can be found at the link above.
Greater Lansing Food Bank
https://greaterlansingfoodbank.org/
The Greater Lansing food bank is a more generalized organization to give to, which is great due to the large amount of opportunities there are to volunteer here. This food bank does not just serve the Lansing area, but also counties of Clare, Clinton, Eaton, Gratiot, Isabella, and Shiawassee. This food bank had a tremendous impact in 2022 with 11,008,273 pounds of food distributed, along with 9,175,560 meals distributed. There are food sorting opportunities available Monday-Friday from 9 to 11 a.m. and 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. On their website, they list their various volunteer opportunities, some of which are open for months at a time. This organization also accepts financial donations.
Now, for those that grew up in Southeastern Michigan like me, or those who have their permanent homes closer to Metro Detroit, here are places in the Motor City where you can donate time or resources to those in need:
Capuchin Soup Kitchens Services Center
https://www.cskdetroit.org/programs/services_center/
This is a unique kind of service center located in Detroit, MI near I-94 and Mt. Elliot. The center was inspired by the life and spirit of St. Francis of Assisi and works to meet guests’ needs for food, nourish the spirits of guests, and create lasting meaningful change, according to their website. They have given food and clothing to 228,000 people, usually those who are in urgent need. This food center is different from others, because it is set up to allow guests to have their own kind of shopping experience using the donations they’ve received. Each guest is given a specific number of pounds of food, based on their family size. The food pantry distributes 10,000 pounds of food every day. There is also a clothing distribution center that features racks just like the kinds you see in retail stores. The clothing center distributes 1,700 articles of clothing each day. They accept donations of food, clothing (for adults and children), appliances, and furniture. Currently, they are in greater need of children’s, men’s,and plus size clothing.
Crossroads of Michigan
https://www.crossroadsofmichigan.org/volunteer
This is a beautiful cause to donate your time or resources to that helps many individuals with a variety of needs. This organization is based in Detroit, and was originally founded by Father James McLaren in 1971 because he noticed there were growing numbers of people in his community who could not access resources, and who were receiving unequal treatment. This organization not only distributes resources, but also hope, encouragement, understanding, and love to marginalized community members that may struggle finding it elsewhere. They have a vast array of volunteer opportunities that are tailored specifically to the volunteer member strengths in order to make volunteering enjoyable, and they provide the best care to community members as possible. Volunteers can come any Monday or Tuesday to assist with packaging and supplying diapers, formula, and baby clothes to parents in need. On Sundays, volunteers can assist with preparing and serving 400+ meals to community members between the hours of 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. All other volunteer opportunities can be found using the link above. This organization also accepts financial donations.
Regardless of whether you volunteer, put more effort into your journey of gratitude, or do both or possibly neither,I hope the holidays are kind to you. Go build a snowman and hope for snow. Also, at the very least, try to enjoy the breath inside your lungs each day because that is so precious in a world like this.
Works Cited:
Harvard Health Publishing. (2021, August 14). Giving thanks can make you happier. Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/giving-thanks-can-make-you-happier#:~:text=In%20positive%20psychology%20research%2C%20gratitude