Every one of us has at least one gift, one talent that is just ours. Sometimes we don't use our gift as we are no doubt intended to be using it. What a waste. Let's change that.
There is such joy in us when we are using our gift. We don't have to be the best to feel the joy. All we need to do is use it.
When I write, words come easily to me. I don't over-expect when I write something, such as this letter to you, that it will be a prize winner. I just expect that I'll be able to put on paper what I want to share and that some of you will shake your heads and say, 'Oh, yes, I need to do that again' - whatever 'that' may be for you.
Then there are times when I am writing something powerful to me and words just flow, filled with my emotion, and I read the page over and over, pleased that I have been able to put my feelings down precisely the way I want them. When that happens, I am transported to another place. I can write away, right past a meal time, unaware that time is passing. I am 'in my element,' is what I think expresses the feeling best.
Those of you who play an instrument with passion, paint your hearts out, deliver newborn babies, or tune a carburetor just right, know what I mean. In fact, my point is that each of you, no matter what you do, knows just what I mean. Every one of us has at least one true gift. We all need to use it more, feel that totally immersed feeling, make that contribution to ourselves if not to the world. If we haven't felt that wonderful focused feeling lately, let's give ourselves the gift of feeling it again and more often.
While we are thinking of our gift, let's think of what the gift is in the lives of those we love and care about as we prepare to give them a holiday gift. If we give them something that helps them get into their particular gift, we are giving far more than once. We are also acknowledging who they really are, and that may be our greatest gift to them.
It is particularly true when we give to children. If we've seen the spark of their true gift, nothing is more important than to nurture it as much as we can.
How well do we know those to whom we feel closest? Is our present to them reflective of their gifts? Or will our gift be to share our own gift? Either way, the gifts that keep our own and their own 'gifts' in mind are the best. These gifts require a little thought and a lot of love.
May your holidays be rich with gifts of love.
Jean Loxley-Barnard has been a writer all her life and studied both sociology and psychology at George Washington University where she earned a B.A. Her company, The Shopper, Inc., encompasses all the Loxley-Barnard family publications - The Shopper Magazines and Doctor to Doctor Magazine. She has been in the advertising, consulting and publishing business for 39 years.