Filling Cups By Shopping Local - Editorial
Over the past couple of years, we have found ourselves trying to shift our holiday shopping style. With the overload of Black Friday email blasts (the period for which seems to get longer every year) and ease of Amazon Prime, shopping online feels like the simplest way to check off the family and friends on your holiday shopping list.
But there is something less magical about the whole ordeal, with the clicking and confirming information. It feels impersonal, more automatic than anything. We have become an “add to cart” society, for sure, but how could we not? We’ve been conditioned that way.
This year, we’ve made a point to put foot to pavement for our seasonal shopping ventures. We aren’t just heading to Target or another big box store, though—we set a goal to get this year’s entire holiday haul at locally owned small businesses around Cape Cod and beyond. We are proud to report that so far, so good.
Something about it makes us feel a little like a kid again, but better because we have more than just our weekly allowance in our pocket. Perusing the shelves, holding potential gifts in our hands and imagining the excitement of the recipient upon opening it—it feels better than staring at a screen. It feels more real.
Another thing we are greatly enjoying about our in-person shopping are the human interactions. Our parents raised us to be polite year-round but, at this time of year, holding the door for other shoppers, exchanging a quick smile and wishing them Happy Holidays feels particularly special. It almost sounds trivial to say, but sometimes these small things really are what “fills your cup,” so to speak.
We learned about the cup-filling metaphor at camp when we were younger. Now when you hear the “fill your cup” mantra, it is usually in relation to self-care and self-replenishment—both of which are important, of course. But when we first learned it, cup-filling was something that you did to others and received in return. You fill others’ cups by pouring yourself into them, overflowing them with kindness, generosity, care and humanity.
Cup-filling doesn’t have to be a grand gesture. We fill cups daily without even knowing it—family, friends, colleagues. You can add to someone’s cup with a simple kind word or two, or with positive action. It really comes down to showing your fellow humans that you see them, that you care, and a sort of acknowledgement that we are both here, doing our best.
In a hyper-online, Amazon-fueled society, we like to think that being out and about in our community is helping fill our collective cup. It feels good to be out in the community, patronizing local businesses, having face-to-face interactions, and knowing that the money and time we are spending is doing a little good for someone close by, where it will matter just a little bit more. That feeling has certainly filled our cup this season; we hope yours is full, too.