Gifts to others ... and yourself

JEAN LOWRIE-CHIN
Excerpt from Observer column | Monday, December 22, 2008


Gift giving
Since money will be short this Christmas, let us look at gifts that will make us more productive and knowledgeable. It's fine to get that multi-featured cellphone as long as you're going to make good use of its features, like alarms to get to work on time and calendars to organise yourself better.

There are non-money gifts that are well appreciated: a spring clean of an elderly parent's home, baby-sitting for stressed-out friends, home-made items. We could support some Jamaican titles. These are the books I plan to give: Beverley Manley's The Manley Memoirs; Marguerite Gauron's and Cynthia Wilmot's Falling in Love after Fifty...the Best is Yet to Come; Easton Lee's Run Big 'Fraid; Joan Andrea Hutchinson's books and CDs; Melville Cooke's 11/9; Valerie Facey's and Jackie Ranston's Belisario, Sketches of Character, A Historical Biography of a Jamaican Artist; Marguerite Orane's Free and Laughing and Robert Lalah's Roving with Lalah.

We could give tickets to the theatre or a great show. This year's pantomime Runner Boy should be a good treat which helps to support our artistes and production personnel. By attending Shaggy's show on January 3, you will be helping the Bustamante Hospital for Children. Anything for charity is a good bet, so I won't be shy to mention that all author's proceeds for first-quarter sales of my book Souldance will go to Food for the Poor and Stella Maris Foundation.

And here is the most important gift of all: the one to ourselves, resolving to live our best life ever. This means staying connected to our God through prayer, cultivating an attitude of gratitude, laughing more and remembering that the healthier we are, the more we'll have to offer to the ones we love best. Have a safe and peaceful Christmas!

lowriechin@aim.com
www.lowrie-chin.blogspot.com.