An African native wanted to give a birthday gift to the foreign doctor who had left a lucrative practice in his homeland to practice medicine in a village of huts in Africa. Wondering what to give this man whom he felt was not in need of anything, he walked 50 miles to collect a beautiful shell by the sea shore. The trip back and forth took him a week. Upon seeing the shell the doctor marvelled and exclaimed, “But you can only find this kind of shell by the sea!!” “Walking part of gift!” answered the African native.
We are now coming to the season when many people think about gift giving. There are many types of gifts; we can give an object, a meal, or even time. These time-old traditions also bring to the last two months of the year extra amounts of stress and frustration. We diplomatically have to decide what to buy for who; where people should sit at the table; what to serve; all along with fighting the weather, traffic, very busy schedules, tight finances, and possibly dysfunctional family dynamics. There was a time when people gave items that they made. They also prepared special foods from scratch, and even had children make their own greeting cards. As such, the gift was not solely the object, but also the time, love, and care invested in creating it. They could then say, “Making, part of gift!’; “Cooking, part of gift!”, or “Drawing, part of gift!” I can remember last summer when we stayed overnight at the home of a family with 13 children in Montana. They had hosted us so nicely. We ate, had an evening of songs and playing a board game, then went to bed. In the morning the 11 year son greeted us with a plaque of the map of Oregon with our name in it, all made out of barbed-wire. It is now affixed to the left side of our front door. What touched me the most was not just the beautiful gift, but rather the personal initiative and the time it took for the boy to make this plaque. We ended the evening a little late that night, but instead of going to bed, this young man invested time to make us a beautiful gift that we cherish. Our busy life may not allow us to put so much time and effort in gifts. We might find it easier to go to the store and buy already made things and pre-prepared food, but even then, when we have to navigate through bad traffic, fight with bad weather, contend with lack of parking spots, keep tabs over time and money constraints, negotiate issues with difficult to please friends and relatives as well as be concerned with dysfunctional family dynamics, let us be able to comfort ourselves by realizing that, “Hassle, part of gift!”
1 Comment
Duane Lundberg
10/25/2019 07:10:51 pm
For years I have made gifts for graduates, weddings, anniversaries out of walnut wood. I include four poem for graduates. The 4 Poems are, IF, Life is like a Weaving, Irish Blessing, The Prayer of Francis of Issi .
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