Appreciating our Gifts

Appreciating our Gifts

How thankful are we? What gifts do we bring to each other?

What I mean by gifts are not the kind you can wrap up in a conventional way with colorful paper and ribbons, but it is the gift of ourselves.

Some of us give the gift of time, energy, and feedback. Some share in activities with those we care for and sometimes with those we don't.

The truth is it's all good. It might re-enforce what we might not like to do, or even help us make new choices, which are more in tune with what feels right for us. even if it's not quite right for us and we find that out later.

We could find ourselves in a position which at first seems enchanting or inviting in some way, and later realize it's only caused us stress or confusion. As we try to make sense of it, it becomes difficult because by now our emotions are involved.

Anything we do is a choice. When we don't make a choice for change, we still have made a choice to remain idle. By our choices, we experience what comes with it. Whatever our choices are is fine as long as we live up to the consequences.

If we are hurtful to others or don't consider the thought that we might have, one way or another it comes back to us.

I would say this has a way of balancing out, yet many things happen that we can't control either. Death for example. Many people see that as some kind of punishment. Even the bible talks about it, yet in death we finally find peace or some such thing.

Someone might say, "But do we really have to die to find peace?" I can see how someone might ask that question. It's one I can't really answer fully or maybe not at all. If I did then it would merely be my perspective based on what I see, hear, read, and feel. All which is an influence on my choices.

But maybe I am getting away from my original idea, which was...umm....how thankful are we?

We can be happy to be alive and experience all that life has to offer or throws our way. If not, what prevents us from doing that? Are we happy to have met and loved the ones we do and also have them love us?

We can nurture those relationships we have with all those people we have interacted with, or we can reject it or them. Maybe it depends on which feels better or makes more sense.

Was all that time spent working studying, interacting a total waste? I think not. For it may have brought into focus or within our scope a treasured friend, a skill, a soulmate, or a new discovery to know ourselves even more.

Personally, I feel that nothing that happens is a waste, although there are some things I would have rather not have had to experience. It is possible that by experiencing it I discovered something in the process.

And that might be what is most important to me, what holds the most meaning, and what feels most consistant.