What Would Pooh Do?

By Brooke Hewes, 12-13-07

Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood lives a little round bear named Pooh. Pooh is a simple-minded bear who enjoys honey, a cozy spot by the fire and being in the company of good friends.

Without knowing it and certainly without much effort, Pooh is compassionate. Pooh is humble. Pooh is, by all accounts, a yogic bear — so much so that he inspired Benjamin Hoff’s The Tao of Pooh, a small book with big implications about how humans could benefit from being a bit more Pooh-like. And with the holidays upon us, I also wonder: if I were more Pooh than person, what would I offer family, friends, and colleagues this holiday season?

Granted, Pooh and his friends probably celebrate the giving season a bit differently than most of us, what with no aisles to browse or internets to surf. Knowing Pooh, though, it’s unlikely that he would, even if he could, amble into a store and buy something just for the sake of buying. It is unlikely that Pooh would buy many gifts at all. He’d probably offer a generous dollop of honey. Or a hug. Or his simple perspective on a problem that has caused friends (like dear, impressionable Piglet) much worry.

So it is in this spirit—in the spirit of Pooh—that I offer a simple gift guide that is both gentle on the earth and the wallet.

1. Make a Gift.
• Paint a picture
• Melt sweet smelling wax into candle molds
• Make a lemon-orange pomander
• Make greeting cards from your own artwork on recycled paper (First scan the image—a drawing or photo of yours— and then send the file to an online card company like shutterfly.com. You could also bring the electronic file to a local store that offers this service.)

2. Help a Friend Live More Sustainably.
• Purchase Green Tags from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation
• Decorate the small fir tree in front of your friend’s house with LED Christmas Tree Lights
• Arrange a basket of sweet-smelling Green Cleaning supplies (and then throw in some cute rags and perhaps even a CD of upbeat house-cleaning music)
• Give a subscription to Natural Home magazine
• Brainstorm more ideas from Dream Green Homes

3. Fill a Holiday Tin with Homemade Treats, like …
• Snowball Cookies
• Gingerbread men and women
• “Fantasy Fudge”
• Choose from the Christmas Cookie Countdown 2007

4. Give Planet Earth CDs. If you haven’t seen these masterful BBC-produced, David Attenborough-narrated films, you may want to borrow them shortly after giving.

5. Select from Earth-friendly Apparel. If there aren’t any local vendors that sell made-in-the-USA clothing from recycled materials or organic cotton, there’s always Patagonia, Be Present, Earth Shoes, HT Naturals, Loomstate Organic, to name a very few of a very many.

6. Give a membership to a Local Food Cooperative. Annual and lifetime membership rarely break the bank and support local producers in addition to cutting carbon emissions. Missoula’s budding co-op is offering lifetime memberships for $125.

7. Create an Eco-Friendly Spa Day. (Though there are exceptions to every generalization, this is probably a to-women, from-women gift.) Invite female friends to your at-home spa, replete with manicures and pedicures; hair washing and scalp massages; and back rubs. Scatter magazines around the house, set out hot tea and cookies, dim the lights, and play relaxing background music. Be sure to use non-toxic products that don’t test on animals, like Aveda, Jason Naturals, and Burts Bees. For more information on natural skin care, read this article.

8. Lead friends and family through asana. If you have a regular asana practice, set aside at least an hour to guide friends through a level-appropriate posture sequence. You can begin and end with chanting, and read a short prayer or guided mediation while everyone lies in savasana.

9. Be inspired by other earth-friendly gift lists: TreeHugger.com Holiday Gift Guide; Grist Gift Ideas; Earthtech Products Eco Gifts.

And if you, Yoga On & Off the Mat readers, have any Pooh-inspired gift ideas, please add to this list by posting a comment or emailing me (and I will post for you).

Holiday gifting shouldn’t create or add to tension. Giving is about sharing and making other people smile. It is about compassion and selflessness. So if your shoulders tend to creep toward your ears when crafting a gift list, stop stressing and start thinking like Pooh.  It’s quite likely that whatever Pooh would do (smile, hum, give a round of honey) will also serve you and loved ones this time of year.