Your assignment: Love something.

I admire the “Buy Nothing” movement and have supported it through years, both personally and through articles about it with millions of readers, literally, on Elephant and our social.

But it’s not enough. Like any extreme, it’s a reaction to another extreme.

In this case, I say, buy something. This is what I buy. Love.

Instead of engaging in careless consumerism, feeding the Man and our own hunger, we can engage in…contentment.⁠
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Contentment, like turning the music off, turning the car off, stopping walking…is a sudden, redemptive silence. A quiet that feeds us, a re-connection with Nature and our own inherent goodness.⁠
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But I like to take my Holiday shopping beyond “Buy Nothing.“ To me, Buy Nothing is the first step: don’t engage in Amazon/Big Box consumerism.

Buy Nothing.

But then, Buy Something. Buy Craft. Buy Local. Buy Secondhand, Antique. Buy Green. Buy Women’s Co-op, Fair-Trade.⁠ Give gifts full of love, that create more peace in this troubled, wonderful world of ours. Transform your hard-earned dollars into a vehicle for love, not destruction.
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Support an imperfect, but lovely mindful businesses. Find a local craft fair. Keep it simple, and about nurturing, not consumption.⁠ Too many people make perfect the enemy of the good, and lapse into lazy nihilism that does real violence to our world. On the other hand, too many of us make “perfect the enemy of the good” an excuse for not trying, for letting go of ethics. We have to be willing to examine our own ethics, and uplift them, and do our best, and better, and shrug, and try again, and let go of guilt or callousness, both. Neither are helpful.
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Support your downtown, and your world, and it’ll all support your mindful way of life right back.

Share, if so inspired.

Inspired to keep indie media alive? We need mindful community more than ever: elephantjournal.com/subscribe, this Holiday season. #mayitbeofbenefit #elephantjournal

For more, read my elephant’s Top 10 Must-Buy Holiday Gift List.