Gifts That Give Back #11

What do you give to someone who has everything? In Patrick McDonnell's Gift of Nothing, Mooch decides that the best gift for Earl, his friend who has everything, would be to give him nothing! He fills up a box with nothing, but then decides he deserves more then that...so he gets a bigger box!

While reading this book to the Alluem Kids, I realized how wonderful of a gift this would be for them. I hear about how these kids run from sport to sport, activity to activity non-stop after spending a day at school and before a night of homework. How wonderful would it be for them to do absolutely nothing even for a little bit this season.

When we were done reading the story, we took sheets of 9"x9" paper and folded little origami boxes...a gift for ourselves. What would we fill these boxes with? Nothing. The gift we would give to ourselves this season is nothing. I had the kids write a number between 1-20 at random on the outside of their boxes. I then told them this would indicate how many minutes a day I wanted them to spend doing nothing during their holiday break. If they were able to do that amount of time during the days of their break and if they enjoyed it, then I urged them to continue doing nothing for just a little bit each day - whether it's sitting up straight and still, practicing one of our mantras or mudras, or lying flat while relaxing the body. Slowing down is hard in this society especially when we're constantly going at such a fast pace trying to do it all. When we do that we forget to enjoy the little things, the simple things in life. Today I urge you to give back to yourself this holiday season. Give the gift of nothing. Enjoy nothing with someone you love. Then take a savasana.