May Day!

May Day is a lovely Holiday that has many different traditions attached to it. The one that I am thinking of today is secretly giving to your neighbors.

When I was a kid, it was great fun on May Day to sneak up to the neighbor's house, leave a basket of flowers, ring the doorbell and run away. Imagine a nice surprise of flowers and you don't know who gave them to you. No obligation to send a thank you note. No singling one person out to be thankful to (You have to be nice to everyone). Imagine being the person giving. Imagine the thrill of sneaking around and the joy of sharing.

Last year, I tried to explain St. Nick to the church children. Not Santa Claus, but the St. Nick from Turkey. He did many generous acts anonymously so people could save face and would be willing to accept his charity. The idea of anonymous giving drew blank stares. The problem is just talking about it isn't enough. So this May Day, the girls and I snuck around to give gifts to some of our neighbors. It was a blast! I hope it was as much fun for the receivers as the givers, but I'll never know. Just to be on the safe side, we left an explanation of May Day for our "victims."

There are many ways to experience a pure act of giving. May Day is a great excuse to find your own way of giving.

Peace,

Shaun


Shaun G. Jamison (c) 2007
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