‘Tis the Season for Giftin’!

So, it’s Christmas time again.  Gifts are on a lot of people’s minds.  Gifts have been on my mind a lot lately, too.  Not because I’m excited to know what’s sitting under the tree for me (ok, maybe I am a little bit,) but because I know what true gifts are.  I also know why they are so important, and I know that everyone – even you – has lots of them.

I realized something a while ago that’s still ringing my bell.  Each one of us carries around arm-loads of gifts all the time.  I know, crazy huh?  These gifts are the ones you were born with.  These gifts are things you’re really good at doing, the things that excite you, the things that make your heart grin.  Gifts are usually thought of as talents, aptitudes, and ways of being.  “She’s a gifted writer.”   “He’s great with kids.”  Our gifts bring us happiness, connection, and income throughout our lives.  But here’s a big thing I realized about gifts that really bumped up the joy factor for me.

These gifts that we think are ours; these talents we were born with, the joy-making aptitudes that have been such good use for us…they aren’t our gifts.  They aren’t gifts that we were ever meant to keep for ourselves.  They aren’t celebratory gifts given to us on our birth day.  Our gifts are meant to be given away.  They are gifts we carried into the world to be given to whoever needs them most.

One of the most magical things about these gifts is that when you give them away, instantly you have more to give.  Your gifts are inexhaustible.  They’re always available to hand out willy-nilly to the world.
And there’s another magical thing about all this gift-giving:  You get back magnitudes more than you ever give.  Try it.  you’ll see.

So, give, give, give of your beautiful self.  Don’t be stingy.  You were sent here with arm-loads of gifts for the world.  It’s your job to figure out how to give them away, and who the recipients are meant to be