Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells! It's Christmas and there's tinsel, christmas carols, fat Santas and crazy shoppers all round.. there's also 32 000 people under 25 across Australia living on the streets. It's a stark statistic that really brings to light that we spend spend spend - not only at Christmas, but during the year - while others suffer. And we are in the lucky country!
Don't get me wrong - I love Christmas. I love that people share gifts, give love, celebrate. But it's also a time of year when lots of people feel lonely and struggle with poverty. Which is why I am very excited to be in a job where I can help to make a small difference in the world.
At the place I
work at, we give complimentary yoga twice weekly to anyone and everyone - to make yoga accessible, to make it fun, and to change people's lives. During December, we still gave free yoga - but we did ask for our yogis to decide if they wanted to donate to our clothing and food drive for Oasis Youth Refuge in Surry Hills - our local community. We asked visitors to our store to dig deep. And they did. We asked every staff member to donate. And they did!
That warms my heart!
Today I read a great article over on Sarah Wilson's
blog, where she talks about a
Melbourne-born lad who earns $47k a year - one third of which he gives away to charity. He's also set up a movement, Giving What We Can, encouraging people to give 10% of their earnings away. Could you do this? Could you give - not just at Christmas, but throughout the year?
To you and yours, Merry Christmas - full of love, sparkles, giving and receiving. xo
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| | “I realised that by donating a large part of my future income to the most efficient charities, I really could save thousands of people’s lives. Since I already have most of the things I really value in life, I thought — why not?” — Toby Ord (Founder of Giving What We Can) |