Gift giving can haunt us. Birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, can raise specters of obligation rather than joy. They can drive us to giving anything, just to cross that duty off our list – maybe something we want to give more than they want to receive.
Sure, the thought counts. But, David Whyte adds, "even more it is the imagination behind the thought that counts, made tangible through gifts that find their definition through being twice blessed."
The first blessing is any gift honoring another. The double blessing comes when we open gifts that are "perfect" because the giver recognized some special wish of ours & granted it.
My daughter is especially good at this because she listens carefully to what her friends treasure. Her mother does the same. When birthdays arrives, they are brilliant at picking presents because they already know what the person values.
Liz Wessel gives us a gift every weekend with both her essays & with the exquisite art that always accompanies her writing.
We both prefer creating cards rather than buying them. In 2016, I spent hours photographing a friend, Lynnie's, gorgeous garden. One outcome was this picture of flowers & ferns dripping over a barrel. That is my gift to you today – tones of pink & blue, ferns leaping & leafing out of their container.
Finally, June 4, 2021 was the 15th anniversary of the Journal whose columns are written, now, by three people who work for free. Thank you Liz Wessel & Terry Chapman.
And thanks to you readers for your endless & sacred gifts of caregiving.
NOTE: Starting today, you can to listen to some issues of the Journal as well as read. Here is an AUDIO links. This is our first try so we are unclear if this will work but it should. Thanks for trying.
-Erie Chapman
Lynnie's Garden, 2016
Today's quote: I do not know You, God, because I am in the way. Please help me to push myself aside. – Flannery O'Connor
Journal of Sacred Work 
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