The Abundance We Overlook
By Jennifer Jones Horton
I have been thinking about you. This time of year always brings me back to gratitude and to thinking about what I have, what I can share, who needs me and how I can be useful in this world. Jewish tradition commands us to give, but obligation is only part of what moves me. I also give for the simple pleasure of seeing someone else smile.
This year, however, I find myself approaching the season with a measure of anxiety and dread. That is difficult for me to admit because I am someone who loves to give. I love sharing food. I love giving gifts. I love making someone feel special. I love the feeling of being able to say,“ I have something for you.”
What happens when I don’ t have as much to give? I own a vegan restaurant in Ballantyne called Sanctuary Bistro. It is a small, family-owned business, and we tend to feel changes in the world pretty quickly, such as the sting or the luxury of any current economies. When money gets tighter, people don’ t necessarily stop celebrating. They just make different choices. The extra lunch disappears. The casual dinner becomes a night at home. The little treat becomes something they skip. People still go out for birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions, but everyday indulgences become easier to forgo. For a restaurant like mine, those choices carry real consequences. But I understand them because we are all making similar calculations right now.
Which means that as I approach this season of gratitude, I have been wondering how I can continue to do the things that matter so much to me. How do I give? How do I help? How do I fulfill the mitzvot that call me to care for other people and for the world around me? Giving is always centered around money, while money is one way we give and it is an important way. Organizations need donations. Families need supplies. Communities need resources. But money is not the only thing we have.
We have our time, hands, voices, creativity and food. We have gardens, stories and the ability to pick up a phone and say,“ Hey. I’ ve been thinking about you. How are you?” Sometimes, that is enough to change someone’ s day. Maybe even more than we realize. Since things feel a little tighter financially this year, I’ ve decided I don’ t want to focus on what I can’ t give. Instead, I want to get creative about what I can give. Whether that be 10 minutes, an email, a phone call or a check-in on the person who has been quiet lately. I can sit with someone who needs to talk. I can remind someone they are not alone. I cannot always fix someone’ s hard season, but I can stand beside them through it. And isn’ t that giving?
I can bake. I know it sounds almost ridiculously simple. But bake a dozen cookies and you can hand out a dozen smiles. There is something extraordinary about receiving something made by another person’ s hands and knowing, I made this because I thought of you. I can write a letter. When was the last time you received a real letter? Not an email. Not a text. A letter someone sat down and wrote because they wanted their words to travel all the way to you.
That is part of why I wanted to write this to you: To say, I see you. I am thinking about you. You are not alone. So find a piece of paper and write to someone you love. Give them the gift of opening their mailbox and finding proof that they were on your mind. I can make something beautiful from something nearly discarded. For my family gifts this year, I’ m borrowing an idea from social media: a photograph taken with your face pressed against glass, producing a portrait that is equal parts absurd and endearing. But rather than buy new jars for the project, I’ m saving those that once held tomato sauce, salad dressing and whatever else passes through my kitchen. I’ ll laminate each photograph, add soil and a cutting from my spider plant, and turn what was headed for the recycling bin into something personal, useful and impossible to buy. Think about that. A jar that was going to the recycling bin. A photograph. Some dirt. A plant that grew from another plant. And suddenly I have a gift. Not because I spent a lot of money. Because I spent a little time.
A gift derives its significance not from its price but from the intention behind it. Perhaps that is why Yom Kippur has also been
The Charlotte Jewish News- November 2026- Page 43
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on my mind. The holiday asks us to look inward, but it does not allow our reflection to end there. It calls us to consider how we move through the world, how we treat one another and how we care for the extraordinary planet we all share.
I can take a trash bag and a pair of gloves to a place others have neglected and leave it better than I found it. I do not need a photograph, recognition or even for anyone to know I was there. The Earth has given me more than I can repay, but I can offer something in return. I can conserve water, avoid unnecessary plastic, buy in bulk and find new uses for what I already have.
And there is one more person I must remember to care for: myself. I cannot serve my community when I am depleted, nor can I continue to give love if I never allow myself to receive it. Caring for myself is not selfish. It is what allows me to keep showing up for my family, my restaurant, my community, those who depend on me and the planet we share.
Perhaps this season is not about asking,“ How much can I afford to give?” It is about recognizing how much each of us already has to offer. If you are anything like me, you may have spent so much time wondering whether you have enough that you have overlooked the abundance already present in your
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life. Consider this my letter of gratitude to you and a reminder that your presence, your care and what you choose to give matter more than you may realize.
Thank you for being here. Thank you for caring. Thank you for continuing to show up in a world that can sometimes make doing so feel challenging. If this season feels different for you, please do not measure your generosity by your bank account. Generosity is not something we either possess or lack. It is a choice we make each time we offer our attention, our effort, our compassion or simply our presence. And those gifts may be more valuable than we realize.
Temple Kol Ami is a Reform Jewish congregation formed in the spring of 2010 to answer the needs of a growing and diverse Jewish community in the greater York County area. We are a warm, caring and egalitarian community, cherishing tradition while yearning for expression in modernity. To learn more, email yorksynagogue @ gmail. com or visit templekolamisc. org.