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One of the best ways to give, is to give to friends.
Modern workplaces and friendships
During the COVID shut down, many of experienced the loneliness associated with being separated from family and friends. I value my friends, and one of my priorities is making time for them. In fact, when I quit my work a year ago, one of the first things I did was to catch up with many of those people to whom I had said “we must catch up one day”.
It happens. We are all so busy. And this is one of the problems with modern workplaces: we are all so ‘busy’ we have no time for building relationships, and relationships are kind of fundamental to human society. I have several lovely friends from my previous work I remain connected to. But I have others where I’ll send an email occasionally and I know they are ‘too busy’ to read it let alone respond.
Giving to friends
Back to giving. My friend Aranka, who I met during Problogger in 2017, has visited Canberra twice in recent weeks and I’ve been able to give her things: cookbooks, a chef’s apron in need for a bit of love, a SCOBY, lemon vinegar, a sourdough starter and some CDs. Aranka has many skills, including being the host of a weekly radio show on Triple H 101.1 FM called Thrive Live. I’m honoured to have been a guest for much of 2020.
Also this weekend, I gave a box of cocktail glasses to my sommelier friend, Frederique Raimbaud from Le Petit Bouchon. Hubby found them in the shipping container that contains furniture and stuff from his previous life. He was given them as a 40th birthday present, but he has never used them. After gifting them, we cheekily invited ourselves over to their place over Christmas for cocktails and a BBQ. As you do!
Joyful Giving
- 4 x cookbooks
- A chef’s apron
- A SCOBY for making kombucha
- Lemon vinegar
- Sourdough starter
- 2 x CDs
- A box of 9 liqueur and cocktail glasses