Happy Valentine's Day, Everyone!

In less than two weeks we'll be celebrating Valentine's Day for this year--it falls on Thursday, February 14th--and I've been putting a lot of thought into this day. To me, it means passion. Passion that includes intense emotions that connect us to other people, not only in the romantic sense, or the platonic sense, but in the global sense. How do our emotions connect to people we don't personally know? I believe it is through passion embedded in altruism and our spirit of deep helpfulness, our hard-wired desire to help one another. I believe it is also through compassion.

One of the reasons I founded Shopping for a Change is from this passion I feel in helping others, locally and non-locally. And it is this power of passion that drives me through the day and drives this nonprofit. Love and passion are inherent in all of our products, as captured and expressed by the artisans who craft them across thirteen countries.

As Valentine's Day is a celebration of our love, passion and other finer expressions of devotion, I feel that a continual burning of the fire of passion is a good shopping motif for this day. Among our many products that can be given for Valentine's Day, I've chosen this one for its fire.  This is the Same Sky Glass Beaded Bracelet, made of handblown glass beads. Besides the Fire Red, there are fourteen other colors to choose from.

There are, of course, many other fair trade items to select from for Valentine's Day.
And we are holding a Catch 'Em Before They're Gone! sale that has many handmade fair trade products marked way down. Please visit this sale page. Thank you all and see you in the store.