Gift of giving doesn't need a season

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Tansi, ahnee and hello. The season of cheer is upon us. The signs are everywhere. Crowds of people hovering around cash registers, the neon glow of Christmas lights, party notices in the mail and the feeling that comes with this emotional territory; that everything is going to be all right.

I love Christmas for that. Love is far more than the shiny wrappings, the turkeys, parties and carollers. Love is more than the emotionalism inherent in the old Christmas story. I don't know what it is in this time of year that coaxes the optimism out of the most hardened of us. I only know that "bah-humbug isn't in my vocabulary and hasn't been for years.

Perhaps it has something to do with learning the nature of giving. Up until a few years ago I operated under the assumption that Christmas was the exclusive territory for my generosity. The time when I opened the wallet and offered my hard-earned collars in exchange for symbols of my caring and appreciation for the people in my life. I lived, I suppose, like most of us then.

The feeling of Christmas in those unenlightened years was the feeling of expectation. Will; they like this? What I get? Will so-and-so buy something for me? It was the feeling of expectation based on a misdirected idea of giving.

Looking around my room on this early morning light, I see much that has been given me by people on days far removed from Christmas.

There's a white fluffy polar bear named Wilson who lives above a stereo speaker. Wilson came to live with me because my friend Lori wanted to offer me something on one of those "meaningless" days of the year. Offer me something to express her appreciation for our friendship. Offer me something on a day that had no name other than Thursday.

Wilson is named after the great soul singer Wilson Pickett. Whenever he and I crank up Pickett's music on the stereo, and jitterbug around the room, my friend Lori is right there, dancing along with us in celebration of friendship and music. I can't look at that tiny polar bear without remember my friend and the special part she plays in my life.

Then there's the sweetgrass that was offered to me by my cousin Fred. I use it every morning to start my day. When I spread that sacred smoke around the four parts

of my being, body, mind, emotions and spirit, I feel like my cousin is joining me in prayer. We have our disagreements, Fred and I, but the gift of that sweetgrass takes us above all the petty bickering we human beings are prone to and let us care about each other despite the differences.

I think it was a Tuesday when he made me the gift of those braids.

There's more but the point is there. Behind it is the true nature of giving. Freed from specific time and place, the act of giving becomes sacred through our desire to acknowledge the love, compassion and respect we hold each other in. There's no ritual

or ceremony other than a warming hug, a handshake, a smile, laughter and the vague feeling that everything is going to be all right.

I didn't know that for the longest time and it's taken a long time to become a believer. A believer in the idea that Christmas should be an everyday feeling and that the act of giving itself is the present we offer each other. What's wrapped in the paper is just the anchor for the feelings that prompted us to give, the reminder we carry in our hearts and display in our homes.

This past year I've given money, CDs, jewelry, paintings, feathers, books and small trinkets to various people in my life. Every time I've done that we've both walked away feeling loved, respected and significant. Every time I've done it, the day that gift was offered became special, became a little Christmas in the middle of July, October or whenever.

That's why I love Christmas so much. Because for one day out of the year we all get a chance to become believers again. We all get a chance to have our insides warmed by the act of giving. We all get a chance to come a little closer to the valuable lesson that coms wrapped in the Christmas season; the true nature of a gift.

That nature is very simple. It means there is no price tag for esteem, love and compassion and there is no specific time or place necessary for an example of being held

in those regards. Giving is an act of Christmas in our everyday lives.

Our elders knew that. Knew it and taught it and made it part of our tribal natures and because of that it lives within each and every one of us. Connecting to it is spiritual, true and very aboriginal. Connecting to it is learning the nature of Christmas and believing that everything is going to be all right.

Merry Christmas.