Hello Mi Neighbour | Spreading Christmas joy

Hello, mi neighbour! How’s your day so far? May goodness and mercy be your travelling companions throughout the season! Goodness as your guide and mercy as your defence.

When favoured by these ­companions, despite your circumstances, the outcomes should be very good! Merely ­wishing for goodness and mercy to follow you may not cut it, however. How do we ensure, then, that we are true beneficiaries of goodness and mercy?

Adhering to the adage ‘do good and good will follow you’ is a good place to start. Do the good that you would appreciate from others and you cannot go wrong. In the streets, you will encounter the good, bad and indifferent. Some will spoil or enhance your day. During the process, you’ll be given opportunities to do good or bad. The choice you make can determine how your day will end and may also affect the rest of your life. Just be sober, and do the right thing.

And speaking of opportunities to do good, the Christmas season provides us with an ample amount! Of this season, an American Motown group, The Temptations, made this ever-relevant observation: People making lists, buying special gifts, taking time to be kind to one and all. It’s that time of year when good friends are near.

It is also a time when they “wish that (they) you could give more than just presents from a store”.

So, they asked, “Why don’t you give love on Christmas Day?”

 

“Even the man who has everything

Would be so happy if you would bring

him love on Christmas Day,

No greater gift is there than love.

 

“The man on the street and the couple upstairs

All need to know there’s someone who cares.

Give love on Christmas Day

No greater gift is there than love.”

 

Christmas is a time when organisations visit ­infirmaries and children’s homes with gifts – a time when friends, relatives and co-workers exchange gifts as an expression of love. It must be made clear, however, that expressions of love do not necessarily require tangibles. Higher expressions of love are actions from the heart that say, “I forgive you,” “I wish you well,” “I share your pain” and “I celebrate your success.”

Miss Nigeria’s unprecedented reaction to Toni-Ann Singh’s victory at the Miss World pageant on December 14 at the ExCeL London aptly makes the point. Wow! Never seen anything like that before!

How do we react to the achievements of others – acquisition of a new home, purchase of a brand new motor vehicle, a special award, or promotion, etc?

So, as you give a gift this Christmas, do not stop at the tangibles, which are short-lived. Give love, which extends beyond time. After all, what we celebrate at Christmas is that gift that entered our world 2,000 years ago to ‘eternalise’ our lives. Let’s internalise this gift.

Give love this Christmas and enjoy the happiness this offers.

THANKS TO NEIGHBOURS

- Miss Thomas, for items.

- Dellerene, St Catherine, for offering men’s clothing.

- Denise, for offering equipment to a neighbour who would like to open a hairdressing salon.

- Neighbour, for donation.

NEIGHBOURS’ REQUESTS

- Simone, St Catherine, single mother, asking for a bed.

- Grace, asking for a dresser, St Thomas.

- Neighbour asking for a freezer on behalf of neighbour Roger, who is a single father with impaired vision. Setting up a micro chicken-rearing business.

- Neighbour asking for two bags of cement and two pieces of ply to help with a little dwelling.

- Junior, St Mary, unemployed, asking for a pair of size-nine sneakers and a garden fork – wants to do farming.

- Miss Watson, St Elizabeth, asking for a settee.

To help, please call Silton Townsend @ 334-8165, 884-3866, or deposit to acct # 351 044 276 NCB. Alternatively, send donations to HELLO NEIGHBOUR, c/o 53 Half-Way Tree Road, Kingston 10; PayPal/credit card. Email: zicron22@yahoo.com. Contact email: helloneighbour@yahoo.com. Visit hellomineighbourja.blogspot.com. Mr Townsend exclusively manages the collections and distributions mentioned in this column and is neither an employee nor agent of The Gleaner.