We Are Gifted.
We all have our gifts. Personal gifts, like the ability to draw well. Some people are good with numbers, others with communication, and yet others with athletic feats. So many gifts. I feel it’s important to share your gifts with others, not only in profitable ways, but in ways that enrich other’s lives. I also believe it’s good to try to develop your gifts to their highest potential if possible, otherwise you’ll never know what’s possible to achieve. Maybe your highest achievement will leave a lasting effect on the world of mankind’s time on Earth. Sounds pretty lofty, I know.
I’m sure there are many of us who feel gifted in other ways besides personal gifts/talents. Some of us are gifted with incredible opportunities, some with good health or longevity of life. A good deal of us feel we are gifted with the friends and family who make our lives so rich. It is certain that we are gifted with the treasure of our children, a gift so precious that we should shelter, nourish and give the utmost respect to their well being.
I Have Been Gifted.
I feel privileged to have been gifted with a loving husband and three amazing daughters. Each daughter is gifted in return. All of them make immeasurable differences in the lives of other children. One as a teacher, another gives respite to families and children in need, both of them also as parents of children as well, and the other serves children nourishment during their busy school days. She is my daughter with special needs.
Why I have been entrusted with such a special gift, I grapple to put my head around sometimes. Sometimes it’s a struggle. Like when I leave an important note on the counter to remind myself of something, and then have to go searching for that note because apparently nothing can sit on the counter. Or when I have to hurry to get somewhere on time, and I’ve forgotten that some people move through time at their own pace. Why did my Creator think I was patient enough to have been given this important responsibility? Perhaps because I have Love, because I have Imagination. It is these two other gifts that I’ve been given which help me find creative ways to deal with tough situations.
Interestingly enough, she has those same gifts, which only make my gifts that much more effective. Her youthful heart and mind help me to stay connected to the mindset of the young, which as someone who is interested in working in illustration and authorship of books for children, is very useful. Those qualities also make life flat out fun.
The Gift of Imagination.
As a child I was gifted with imagination, and luckily, so were my other brothers and sisters. They came up with imaginative games, often times, to help us get through the drudgery of a farm chore.
Through their creativeness I came to see creative things in the ordinary of every day objects and situations. I saw knights and queens in selections of shiny and jeweled buttons in my mother’s button tin, horse tails in handfuls of baling twine, and all sorts of woodland critters in the assembly of acorn and stick combinations.
Playing with my girls in this type of creative play, I believe helped them to become creative thinkers as well. Especially my daughter with Down Syndrome who dwells on the humor of movies, TV shows, and special times spent with others. I’m not certain why specific moments and visions stick with her, but often when something in every day life sparks that memory, she just shouts it out, or recalls a line.
The grasses are still emerald as the first fair falling of foliage finds it’s way onto sidewalks and roadways. It makes for scenic bike rides in our neighborhood and on the trail nearby. As we curved into the cul-de-sac at the end of our road the other night, she called out, “The yellow brick road.” Which of course to her, most likely looked like that kind of path to swoosh through, and made the spinning up of little golden leaves all the more charming to me. I am gifted.
Another time we were pedaling down the bike path and the shade became dense as trees and brush huddled in an arch over our heads. “Get off the road,” she called, in remembrance of the line from The Lord of The Rings. So of course, I had to make the neighing sound of the dark dreadful horse on the road overhead as Frodo, and his Hobbit buddies hunched under the tree roots along the ditch. We laughed together. I am gifted.
Find your gifts. Nourish them, and hold them dear. They are the riches of the world.