Disentangling Meanings
  

One quiet year during the holidays, I wrote a book called The Sharing Season: Ideas for a Frugal, Meaningful Holiday, upon which this website is based.  But possibly it’s not what you think I mean, a "frugal, meaningful holiday"... 

What is frugality? What are meaningful gifts, meaningful holiday experiences?

Here's what I mean by those three words...

Frugal:  Frugality doesn't necessarily mean inexpensive. Rather, not ostentatious or gift-just-because-you-have-to-give-something (or decorate-with-something, etc.)... but out of a consciousness that what is done (giving a gift, decorating a space, sending a greeting, planning a gathering) is done with discernment and congruence. That can mean spareness or lavishness - as the situation calls for. (Frugality as a state of mind! But of course, appropriate inexpensiveness is achievable, and critical to some - and the suggestions in this book do tend that way.)

Meaningful:  Something that conveys more than itself... Meaningful gifts are those given with obvious thought; decorations, those that evoke good feelings; gatherings, those that give to the group, not just show off the host’s cooking/decorating skills. ...Contributions to life that are eloquent with positive intent - and that last beyond the moment. Just what seems to be especially needed during the winter holiday season. (Though, of course, the principle applies easily all year round.)

Holiday:  At the end of the Western year, when minds and hearts open with the coming of a concatenation of festival holidays; especially in December, when so many people in many parts of the world are celebrating. ...That may mean Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, a winter solstice celebration, getting through another year - or whatever. A time that a great many people have agreed (for somewhat varying - and maybe complex - reasons) to distinguish as representing the best of human nature, the best that life has to offer.

"The Sharing Season", I've come to term it. I believe that's what we all truly would like it to be - even the Scrooges among us (who have somewhere along the line become embittered by their poor experiences of togetherness... while they expected - and then grew not to expect, or even hope for - more).

Just what frugal, meaningful gifts and celebrations am I thinking about? - read on...
   

"Back of the sound broods the silence,
back of the gift stands the giving;
Back of the hand that receives thrill
the sensitive nerves of receiving."

Richard Realf, Indirection