A Gift to Give

We’re once again in the much awaited season of all.

People look forward to this time of the year with much anticipation.

It’s a time of fun and merrymaking – and a time for gifts.

A gift is always a nice thought, whether you’re hoping to receive or intending to give one. But a gift also has other sides to it – we receive gifts we do not like or give gifts we do not want to give. Not everybody understands the true meaning of a gift.

Some people get too burdened about what to give. This is especially so when budget is tight, or when the giving is not sincere. Others devote much more time and effort in wrapping their gifts than they did in choosing them.

Why the excessive eagerness about wrapping the gift? We tend to overdo it that by the time the gift is wrapped and wrapped and over-wrapped, the packaging has overtaken the importance of the gift itself.

In the end, the core essence of the giving is covered over. We value the look of the gift over its meaning, the ostentation over the intention. The fundamental purpose of giving should be to share, to reach out.

It is, in a way, like the way we do with our own selves. We become so concerned with packaging, with outward appearance. Our interactions with others become wrapped around so many times, that we no longer see essential meaning in our relationships.

In our business and social grinds, for instance, we often become too pre-occupied with our projected image that we tend to lose the idea of what we really are inside. Underneath the various layers of wrapping, our innate humanity is gasping for breath.

For the most part, we create our own troubles in life – a ‘gift’ we give to ourselves, although not intentionally.  We want everything to be in order, for our life to go smoothly always. Ironically, such obsession for order often throws our lives in disarray.

But there’s no sense in wishing life to be perfect; we don’t even know what perfection is really like. Agonizing over life’s flaws will not drive them away. And to isolate ourselves from others simply because they don’t live up to our standards is pure and simple arrogance.

Living with our human shortcomings and trying to do our best in an imperfect world is about the most any one of us can do.

Being alive is the greatest gift we are given. This may sound like empty cliché, but it isn’t. A lifetime is an amazing package filled with potentials for success, happiness, love and joy for all.

But the gift of life is highly perishable – it is wasted when we hold it back and allow it to stale.

No one is ever so poor not to be able to give a gift. We can all give a little piece of ourselves. To offer our time, our service, our companionship to those who need it can be as valuable, if not more valuable, than anything we can afford to buy.

True, such essential gifts may not instantly draw out that grateful smile like a physical gift does. The impact of a kind gesture may not readily manifest on the face of its recipient. But it is sure to have some positive effect in his life.

We are each a part of an enormous totality. It is in our nature to want to be one with the rest of our own kind. But it’s only when we overcome feelings of self-centeredness and indifference, when we stir up the divine in us and begin to reach out that our life will expand gloriously beyond our known limitations.

At Christmas, we may not have to look far for a possible recipient of our gift. We need to remember ourselves, too. In fact, we deserve to get the best gift.

Perhaps the best gift we can give ourselves is freedom – to go out into the world and live the way we were meant to. The key to a full life is living in the moment, experiencing every second. There’s no point in over-wrapping our life with worries, concerns, apprehensions and fears. Many of these are simply borne out of our own short-sighted interpretation of life events.

Gift-giving should not be an obligation but a sincere intention to share – not only with what we have but, more importantly, with what we are. It is in giving that we receive... in giving ourselves that we become whole.