Thanks to my keen mother’s ears and eyes, I happen to know that there is an especially sweet, handmade gift awaiting me at this festive holiday time.
It is a carefully cut paper snowflake, wrapped in the mother of all wrapping jobs. Again, my maternal instincts tell me that an entire roll of tape might have been used in the process of wrapping up this precious gift.
As I take a moment to appreciate my gift, my thoughts begin to wander. My mind wanders past images of my own gifts for loved ones that still need wrapping, past the visions of bustling malls, and the dizzying din of the toy stores, and the hum of crowded places that sometimes take center stage this time of the year.
I begin to think about the most unique and splendid gift of all. The one that resides at our very center, underneath all of our different outer wrappings of our many human forms.
We are all unique and special gifts to the world. Every one of us.
You are the best gift ever.
Yes, you are the best gift ever — just the way you are. There is no one in the world who has ever come before you or who will ever come after you that brings your singular mind, your one of a kind experiences, your vast soul, or your extraordinary human body down to its microscopic, cellular level.
In fact, you and I are this perfect gift, right now in this very moment, even if where we stand is messy and painful. We do not need to have attained outer successes or even inner peace, to embody this best gift ever. It has always been there.
Sometimes it may take us whole lifetimes to realize that our gift we bring lives right within us. And that is ok. This is the fabulous human experience! As we move through our days, take down metaphorical walls, remove our blocks and barriers, we will eventually know that we are the gift.
As we follow our hearts and live our truths, it becomes easier to see. In fact, living your authentic personal story is your gift to yourself and to the world. What is it you are here to feel, to express?
Come, join me in this New Year, during the magic of Winter Solstice, and meet your authentic self, embrace your deepest desires of the heart, and live your dreams.
Sometimes it is easier to see the gift in others. Look into any child’s eyes and you will see it. Take a moment the next time you greet your loved ones, and really look them in the eye, and you will see it. It is probably something you have seen in him/her before.
And with a little practice, you will be able to see it everywhere — in your co-workers’ eyes, in the grocery store clerk’s eyes, in the waiter’s eyes, even in the eyes of the downtrodden and the less-than-saintly. Everywhere you deliberately seek it, you will find it.
I emerge out of my reverie. And my eye catches my little boy’s gift, wrapped in yards of tape.
This precious gift reminds me of me. It reminds me of you. We are each a splendid snowflake gift, waiting to be discovered, under our own unique human wrappings.
Here’s to the unwrapping! And thank you for you.
