Contributed by Irene Watson, MA

The holiday season is upon us. We scramble about to buy gifts for people, to decorate our homes, to attend holiday parties. In the process, sometimes we forget the reason for all this hustle and bustle.

The holidays can be a happy time, but they can also be a lonely time for many people. We may be surrounded by loved ones, but other people may feel most alone at this time of the year. We strive to do good for others during this season. We put money in the Salvation Army kettles in front of the department stores, we buy presents for children who otherwise would not have any. We remember to give because we know how lucky we are—but usually, we give money. We have more precious gifts we are often afraid to part with—our time, our love, our compassion.

After one of Mother Teresa’s talks, a successful businessman once asked her, “What can I do to assist in the change you are talking about? I have money; how much do you need?” She replied, “I don’t need your money. What you can do is go out into the street early tomorrow morning, find someone who is convinced they are alone and assure them they are not.”

There are two ways for us to care for others—the clean way and the dirty way. The clean way we give money. The dirty way we get involved. Too often, we are afraid to get involved. But getting involved doesn’t mean we have to move to Africa to care for orphans. We don’t even have to volunteer at the local homeless shelter. We can do something as small as showing love to people in our words, our smiles, the tone of our voice—to the depressed cashier at the supermarket, to the tired old woman waiting for the bus. Just by smiling and saying hello we make a difference. We can start there, and once we realize how giving is not scary, we can move to something bigger. Love will expand.

How much does the world need love? Mata Amritanandamayi, a Hindu spiritual leader from India, knows. She is known to the world as “the hugging mother.” People stand in long lines just to hug her, and she has been known to hug one person after another for up to twenty hours a day. She hugs them and reportedly passes on positive energy to them. Her hugs are reputedly healing and she is said to have hugged more than twenty million people.

To give a hug is such a simple thing, and yet so often we are afraid even to do something that simple. We must be afraid to give love; otherwise, people would not be lining up to receive hugs from one woman who is not afraid.

As I said, we can start small, but this holiday season, we can do better. In whatever way we can, we can give the gift of love.

Irene Watson, MA,  is author of The Sitting Swing: Finding Wisdom to Know the Difference, and co-editor of The Story that Must Be Told: True Tales of Transformation, and Authors Access: 30 Success Secrets for Authors and Publishers. She is a workshop leader, managing editor of Reader Views, and president of a non-profit Higher Power Foundation. Irene lives next to Barton Creek in Austin, TX, with her husband Robert.