Growing up, I LOVED any holiday providing a reason to get gifts. Birthdays and Christmas.....and then, after watching my brother being showered with presents during his two hospitalizations, my list of possible present receiving occasions expanded.
Happy Birthday presents
Merry Christmas presents
Happy Hospitalization presents
Through high school, I would think up the most economical ways to invite the most people to "celebrate" my life. In tenth grade, my Dad asked why I invite so many people to my birthday parties, "Why not just a few friends." Without a blink, without a thought:
"The more people, the more presents."
What a motto to live by. But there you have it, I LOVE gifts.
Over the years, my idea of gifts has changed. At seven years old, I'd see a commercial about the footise, new and improved with a counter to see how many times you could jump over the rope without tripping up (you know what I'm talking about)...so, I'd see the commercial and think, "THAT's what I want for my birthday....only nine more months!" All year, I'd come across things that I just knew would make that year the best birthday ever.
Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE gifts...however, my taste has narrowed in a way that happens when distant horizons are explored, alone. There's nothing like looking at the sun setting over a seemingly endless desert with only your eyes. To share that sunset and see, if only a glimpse, the sun set through another's eyes, through another's perspective...that is a gift. To talk face to face with Mom and discuss ideas and thoughts that don't mean much to her except that it allows us to be, if only for a moment, in the same moment, nearing the same place, face to face....that is a gift. To look around a room full of smiling faces; friends, family...that is a gift.
To know and to be known. To love and to be loved. Gifts worth wanting. Gifts worth sharing.
This year, my birthday wishes have already come true.
I am so grateful. Thank you.
About Me
- Just a Jabbott or two
- Hawaii, United States
- trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.
4 comments:
ahhh...how beautifully blissful. thank goodness for those breathtaking gifts we learn to appreciate with such a greater depth than the latest Toys 'R Us commodity. i am so glad you shared that thought. happy happy happy happy birthday, friend!
with all due respect to your new taste of gifts (especially the sunset, I loved this one) I find books the most amazing gifts ever, especially with a dedication and when the book actually have something to do with the giver and reciever.
Marooned84 in Maadi,
Yes, books are wonderful gifts. A book takes us beyond our own horizons and opens our eyes to see new beauty in a sunset, a drop of dew on a leaf (not many of those in Egypt :), a flaw in a person. But what do I have to offer a book? A book can't know me. As you know, I think the most amazing gift that people have is the ability to know other people and to be known by others. Each person is like a secret waiting to be told. A book won't hear your secrets. But people! People expand my experience not to just see the sunset, the dew, the person, but to feel them. To feel life. Not to dream of beating hearts but to feel another heartbeat. To feel life more deeply, together. And so, for me, books are a means to an end. And a wonderfully pleasant means at that! Look at us! They give common ground to us and many others who live a world away!
May we feel life a bit more deeply through the life of a person nearby. And books, even the very discussion of their importance, will have gained that much more importance in the world, in life, in our lives.
From this side of the world,
Still searching, still silly, and yes, still selfish.
I enjoyed your reply comments, all of them! Books are wonderful, but only when you get to know persons. that's why I said "when the book actually have something to do with the giver and reciever". It's a wonderful thing when u're not replacing life with it, but when it makes u open up to life and people more and more.
Post a Comment