The Big Pause: A Gift Economy

Photo Credit: Luciana Aranha

I learned the concept of a Gift Economy at Burning Man, where smiles, compliments, hugs and love are the currency and many camps gift something to the citizens of Black Rock City when they visit their address. Crossing paths with gifting strangers is the epitome of the culture on the playa, my belly was filled with grilled cheese sandwiches and popsicles - just because. Every gift under the sun, and many you could never imagine, exists in this city; the economy is a rich and thriving one and the only limitation is the citizens’ imaginations.

One of the most beautiful outcomes of the current pandemic has been the rise in gifting, and the construction of a gift economy. So many people instantly began to gift what they had to offer. From online offerings, to free concerts, to virtual experiences and all kinds of classes, workshops, and programs…all more accessible than ever. You can read how I feel about the pivoting that happened in a past post right here, and about how I feel about donation-based offerings right here.

In a perfect world, like Burning Man, a Gifting Economy thrives on the solo intention of gifting without a return. In a pandemic Gifting Economy, we are learning that gifts don’t pay the rent; and many business-owners who started with gifting and/or donation-based offerings are realizing this is not sustainable for the long-term.

Maybe you’ve been feeling this right now?

Yesterday one of my very favorite cafe owners in Paris announced that he had created a quick online shop to sell his coffee beans. His is one of the millions of small businesses being hit hard, many of them were not prepared for e-commerce, and have been struggling greatly.

I have a soft spot in my heart for small, local businesses and I always have.

I have a beautiful handmade by Channa at Cafe Loustic chocolat chaud nearly every day that I can, much like many of you reading this who coffee daily at your favorite spots. I’ve been waiting for a way to support Channa since the pandemic hit, the boutique coffee culture in Paris is a really big deal and when you attach yourself to a certain neighborhood cafe you are family.

If you are a coffee-a-day person then you can calculate very quickly just how much money you’ve saved in the last few months since the coffee-a-day option became non existent. We’ve been saving in many ways actually, those of us with this privilege right now.

Without even flinching I posted a spontaneous announcement on my Instagram Story that I would purchase a bag of beans from Channa’s new e-shop for ten of my Paris friends, the equivalent of what I would have spent at the cafe if the world was still turned on. And just like that, he sold out and is now scrambling to fill his shop up again.

The new Gift Economy is about looking for ways to stretch, share, be innovative, give, trade, collaborate, co-create, and spend what you have in creative ways. It’s about realizing that we are actually saving money, and in turn maybe also realizing how little we need.

For those of us saving right now in any way, what a blessing this is.

In finding ways to sustain myself and my own business, I offered my recent session of “Manifesting Love: A Journey Within” for half price to allow more women into the program during a time when women need this work more than ever. Double the number of women who normally attend have said yes, which means I still make the expected income from the session - and the session was a pivot to make up for lost income due to the travel ban.

Find creative ways to stretch your offerings to serve more and make the same abundance.

And, I recently reached out to my insurance company to make a few adjustments and check-in after many years of paying on my policies, and I learned that I have a policy that I can draw cash from - $955 to be exact. Money I was not expecting, money I am now sharing with people in far greater need than me.

The energetics of money, a vibrational exchange, tells us that the more we give the more we make. There is also a spiritual element to this, if you are like me you feel called to share your abundance for spiritual reasons and since I began doing this (I actually learned this from my Grandfather in our Episcopal church when I was growing up) my life has changed and so has my relationship with money and abundance.

Now is the time to find ways to give what you can, and giving right now means so much more than any other time.

I’ve made it a point to donate $50 each week to a teacher, service provider, cause, organization, professional, person in need…the list is long right now, and while my motivation is intrinsic it sure does feel good when each person replies with gushing gratitude, as if I had just given them $1000.

It doesn’t take much to make a difference in someone’s day right now; recalibrate and find ways that you can contribute to this new Gift Economy in ways that sustain you and others - it’s up to us.