Give to the Max MN

Life is Good: we have enough to share

Month of Gratitude, Day 14

Today, I am so very grateful to live in Minnesota. I am sure there are a lot of raised eyebrows and gasps at reading that statement. No, my blog has not been hacked.

Today is Give to the Max MN Day. A once-a-year celebration of non-profits (this year, 4,000+ are participating) and opportunity for people to make donations to their favorite causes, often with their donations being matched (by board members, corporations, etc).

Minnesotans are a generous bunch. And for that, I am oh, so grateful and proud to stand beside them. Sure, I may complain from time to time about the winters (oh! the winters!), your provincialism (c'mon, let's be honest!), a bit of the culture (lutefisk? really?) and to be sure, this is not the Midwest, but rather the Upper Midwest, and that brings about a lot of differences from the area where I was raised.

But you are innovative and creative, Minnesota. You are a green, sustainable, recycling people. And you are generous. I just took a peek at the Give the the Max MN website and millions of dollars had already been donated by noon. Wow.

So today, my hat is off to my friends and neighbors. I am proud to live in a state that gives so much. A state that doesn't turn the other way, but rather, looks the needy in the eye and puts out their hand to help.

"Give to the max." What a great phrase, huh? Words to live by. Generosity can take many shapes and forms. May you be both the recipient and the bearer of "giving to the max". Today and every day.

 graphic courtesy of http://hschoegler.wordpress.com