What’s the greatest gift I’ve ever given? We’ll get to that… first I wanted to talk about what, to me, defines a “great” gift…
It seems simple, but what greater gift could we possibly give, than the greatest gift given to us?
In a nutshell- ourselves: Our time, patience, knowledge, concern, empathy, compassion, and support (to mention a few of our intangibles available for gifting,) are the best gifts we could ever give.
For holiday gift-giving, you could easily equate this notion into a multitude of clever ideas such as:
- hand-crafting personalized gifts
- writing a heart-felt holiday card
- visiting relatives and friends
- baking favorite treats
- offering to run errands or to help cook holiday meals
- smiling and offering kind words of encouragement (especially when you don’t feel like doing so!)
- volunteering in your community
- sharing your knowledge for the betterment of others
- treating family or friends to a day trip
- gifting event tickets for an outing
- tailoring your gifts to what the recipient truly needs
Yes, I suggested “tailoring your gifts to what the recipient truly needs.” It’s easy to pick up a video game or kitchen appliance that’s on a wish list. It’s nice to do so and the recipient is generally pretty happy to receive their wants—but that’s the catch, those items are wants.
When you get down to the nitty-gritty of gifting you, then the natural course is to determine what it is that the gift recipient really needs of you. If they have simple, basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, those are no-brainers… but often, our needs are not so basic, easy to discover, or to find a way to give of ourselves to help fulfill that need.
Okay, so remember I told you I’d get to the greatest gift I think I’ve ever gifted… well, it was one of those brain-scratchers of “how in the heck do I fulfill this need for this person I love so dearly”? And one of those “eureka” moments when I stumbled upon the answer.
My very best friend, (who lives several states away,) for a dozen valid reasons was feeling very blue, lonely, and underappreciated. Though I could console her over the phone and offer some support, I didn’t have the means to travel and spend time with her as I’d love to, or to pull off an episodic “It’s a Wonderful Life” mission to show her how valued she really was to those around her.
As I care very deeply for her, this bothered me like the Dickens! And it is generally at this time that I find the universe drops little miracles in our path.
Sure enough, I stumbled upon a very novel website called “Celebrate A Hero” which helps users put together booklets of appreciation for “heroes” in their lives… and the wheels started spinning! If my friend had a book like this, she could turn to it in times of feeling blue and easily remember how much she is loved and valued- it would be like a instant “hug.”
No, I couldn’t do a movie version of her life, but I could easily get together a scrapbook of pictures and quotes from my family, friends, relatives, co-workers, and on special memories and on how much this person means to them.
And so I did.
Though I would have liked it to move faster, the process two months, a lot of effort and coordination, but the end result was better than I hoped for…yes, tears of joy were involved (on both sides!) when I presented this lovely tribute to her.
We talk about this gift all the time and I know she values the memories and sentiments of everyone involved. The people who were involved in this project talk to me about how “neat” they thought the experience was and how we should make everyone a tribute book.
I agree. (And have plans to make more for more loved ones… but, shhh! Have to keep that quiet!)
