Having Trouble with That Very Last Minute Gift?

Try making a gift to one of these, from a list of charities compiled by Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer Prize-winning NYTimes columnist and author of Half the Sky.

Or, read Motherlode today and its guest post on a completely different kind of gift. The post ends with this Sufi poem by Hazrat Inayat Khan, a great antidote to the gifti-ness of Christmas:

I asked for strength and God gave me difficulties to make me strong
I asked for wisdom and God gave me problems to solve
I asked for prosperity and God gave me a brain and brawn to work
I asked for courage and God gave me dangers to overcome
I asked for love and God gave me people to help
I asked for favors and God gave me opportunities
I received nothing I wanted
I received everything I needed.