“It doesn’t matter how much you give but how much love you put into giving.” In this phrase from Mother Teresa of Calcutta is the whole meaning of giving to others: a deep feeling that enriches our lives because it creates more intimate and meaningful connections with the people around us. When we decide to give in addition to creating bonds based on generosity, relationships that give a sense of belonging to our community, we improve not only the lives of others but also our own.
Christmas is now upon us, we can see it from the lights in the streets, in the store windows. There is a different air, everything around us is shiny. Christmas is a time of joy for everyone, we are thinking about all the gifts to give to the people we care about and the ones we will receive. The beauty of Christmas is precisely in the act of giving: Jesus is a gift who came down among us and did not seek or wait for our reciprocation to bring his grace and gratuitousness to everyone. That is why choosing to support MetaCometa is a simple gesture but it encapsulates the whole meaning of Christmas: hope for so many children and young people.
Taking in children and offering them all the opportunities for growth that each one is entitled to is difficult, especially for those children who need special care. Making a donation to MetaCometa means performing an act of generosity today, which is a small seed of the future for the many children and young people we welcome every day in our network of foster families and in our semiresidential services. A small piece that for children means opportunity, future, hope. Thanks to the support of so many people we manage to make that seed blossom; seed that becomes a smile on children’s faces, being able to hope to continue playing a sport, having psychological support or even the possibility of going to college for the older ones. Children who arrive in our families need care and belonging, to experience a context in which the relationship with his or her family of origin and foster family, can allow the continuity of affection and of his or her cultural background. The “story” of which each person is the bearer has an inescapable importance and it is possible to appreciate, love and value it only in the light of healthy and alternative relationships such as those proposed in another family. Foster children learn to love and feel loved, feel cared for and welcomed, and recognize that they belong to someone. This inevitably generates a new look at life, to love themselves, to embrace their family of origin and to look forward to the future with optimism.
For MetaCometa, the best gift is to give a family to those who do not have one, shelter to those in need and love to those who need to trust the world again. “Living within a foster family means never feeling alone, feeling safe, in that place that not only you call home, but also all those who manage to find there a safe haven even if it is momentary. And it is precisely when you spend Christmas in the company of children who might not even have celebrated that Christmas, that you realize that the most beautiful gift is being together.”
