Steemit Engagement Challenge S6/W5 - Should Gift-giving only be for a Season in a Year?

It's another amazing time to participate in the Steemit Engagement Challenge for the ongoing season 6. And for this piece, I would be discussing the act of giving and how it should be done. It's definitely going to be an interesting piece and I invite you to take a ride with me.

_{Edited with Canva}

Gift giving simply means dishing out something special to others in appreciation for their excellence, and care and sometimes to show love and concern to the recipient. Gifts can be given out from parents to children and vice verse, gifts for excellent academic performance, company to its workers for their roles in the firm, gifts shared between lovers, and so on.

_{Gifts | Source: Wikimedia Commons}

Giving out gifts is not limited to a few examples discussed above, it goes way beyond that, gifts are sometimes given out towards humanity, seeing the needy and dishing out something even when it seems they aren't expecting much, an example of that is charity. In essence, recipients sometimes must have worked (even as little as been caring) before receiving gifts and in some cases, givers give to people who aren't capable to afford some things.

But should gift-giving be limited to a season? No, giving out shouldn't be limited to a particular season, even though there is a season when more of giving is done, as much as you don't get to eat your favorite food every day then there is no dispute that giving out may be very rampant at a season of the year.

For example, some may be willing to give but the burden on them is just too much such that they can't afford to give out, instead of giving up they strive to ensure to utilize the popular season of giving to bless others through gifts and fulfill their wishes. In essence, giving shouldn't be limited to a season, we can show appreciation or love to those that deserve it at any time.

For me, I don't consider any special period or medium for gift-giving, I love to give even without any reason. Highlighting without reason doesn't translate as I don't have reasons for giving out but they are just simple as "This life is lacking, I can give this to show love", yeah! It's that simple.

That being said, people use some mediums to give gifts outside the populated season of giving and those are:

• Giving gifts out to people during one's birthday anniversary or wedding anniversary to show appreciation for the life one has lived so far.

• Giving out to celebrants on their special days like graduation, anniversaries, christening, achievements, and so on.

• Giving out in response to calls for help about certain events like lives battling a disease, towards development, fundraising, and so on.

• Giving out to appreciate someone special without any special event around them.

One of the first few things to consider when giving out is how important the gift would be to the recipient. You can't give out a pair of shoes to someone whose legs have been amputated before, it's of no use or value to them, this is just an example.

Giving out gifts shouldn't just be done for the sake of giving out, the need of the recipient should be considered before determining what gift you are giving out. For example, before visiting an orphanage under my "Feed the Orphans" project, I ensure I have been there before and know what the needs are. This is what I utilize to plan my gifts for an orphanage.

Having identified the needs of the recipients, some of the proper gifts are cash (to take care of a need or school fees), food items, books, car, house, games, mobile phone/laptop, home electronics and so on, the list is endless. What matters is the gift's alignment with certain needs of the recipient.

The motive behind gift-giving should be pure, straight from the heart. Giving out shouldn't be based on the fact that you are expecting something in return in the nearest future. It's very common here when politicians start giving out when elections are closer which is evident that they want votes in return. Giving gifts should be for good appreciation or blessing lives that lack, and not expect anything in return.

Let's talk about who is qualified to give gifts, anyone at all can give out provided they are capable to some extent, both the rich and poor are qualified. It's important to note that the giver can afford the gift and doesn't consider stealing or involve raising funds in an illegal way for giving, that won't be considered genuine giving because it has blemishes.

_{Giving gifts | Source: Flickr}

For example, if you have 50 USD in savings with no pressing need for it and realized a person needs a few dollars like 5 USD to get something very important to them maybe food, you can give it out even though you are not rich but out of the little, you have blessed a life.

The feelings of gift giver should be willing and feel satisfied after doing it, not having regrets but aim to do more good things and on the part of the recipient, he or she must be appreciative and joyful regardless of how little the gift may be. In my local dialect, there is a wise saying which translates to "He who receives gifts and shows appreciation opens the door for more".

A real-life example of that was seen in the life of a childhood friend many years ago, whenever he was eating bread he would give something tiny as crumbs to his siblings, and whoever grumbled would be neglected but the one that swallowed it with joy gets a bigger portion, he was teaching them a lesson those years. In essence, give willingly and show appreciation for receiving gifts (regardless of size).

In conclusion, the act of giving should be something we do willingly and not limited to certain seasons of the year even though some seasons would have more giving events. Both the rich and poor can give out and as recipients of gifts, we should always show appreciation for the love we have received, it takes love to give out genuinely, take note of that. Thanks for reading and I hereby invite @kouba01, @pelon53, and @ruthjoe to participate in the contest.