labels & roles, patterns & habits
For most the holidays and year end are when matters come to a head - for better or worse. As we rush, rush, rush then crash headlong into our future.
Instead of waiting for a special occasion, would it not feel better to acknowledge the specialness of every moment - timely or not?
Rather than giving the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time - how to do the opposite with attention and effort?
Giving is a disciplined art that needs years of practice and observation to be done appropriately.
The poet David Whyte writes of Giving - "The full genius of gift giving is found when we give what a person does not fully feel they deserve, but that does not overstretch the point, it is the appropriate but surprising next step in their lives. It disarms and moves and empowers all at once while gratifying the one who gives beyond most everyday satisfactions."
Hopefully our state of attention and affairs allows us to be creative and contemplative enough to do so.
If we missed it this year then there is hope in the New Year!
