Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Tuesday Dec. 20, 2005 - Year 3, Day 274 - perfect gift shopping
+4C / 39F & rising - a warm treat this last day of autumn, Gusta’s high speed run&sniff show enjoyed
a fitting day to start my Christmas shopping; store stocks at ‘manageable levels’ now
a short mall walk this afternoon with HK & his walker should do the trick to find perfect gifts
what made ‘perfect gift’ moments of Christmas past ?
I buy gifts for people in my life who matter to me - birthdays, Christmas & sometimes for no occasion at all – many are discarded, worn out or long forgotten
many are lost & gone not because of anything wrong with the choice, with the calibre of the gift . . but lost from memory for giver, receiver or both
some stand out
memories to last a lifetime
how do we do that ? . . I mean pick the perfect gift to give someone
how did I know that giving Krista that ‘oversized thing that looked like a toaster’ called a Hot-Diggety-Dogger would bring such joy to my hot-dog loving child ?
gifts I give & ones I receive have nothing to do with things or price tags or the occasion du jour
it is not the gifts but the moments that matter
is memory of opening the asked for ‘big gift’ may be meaningful or memorable for a short while; does it rank with a ‘ketchup incident’ or floating down a river in Alaska ?
or a note saying ‘I’ll plant you a rose garden’ ?
or just in the way they were wrapped - the disguised ones that used to thrill my kids still do I think as they think back or something wrapped with meaning, care & tears
‘souvenirs’ of Christmas past kept in drawers, hung on walls, tucked away, worn away or long ago thrown away
I’d like to send a solution to a friend with a problem, some healing to another for raw pain, some ‘company’ to someone feeling incredible loneliness, some putty to some waiting hands
from sea to see, from Calgary to Portland to Ottawa to Puerta Vallarta to Los Mochis, to Edmonton to many places & back I have memories
they touch deeply – some past, some present, some future
giving words, giving memories, giving an emotional hug that can stretch from here to there
from here to there in a pair of heartbeats – it does not matter if both parties are conscious of the gift or the thought
it is not an issue of being better to give than receive; it is a matter of having someone to care about, someone to spend emotion on
I’m shopping with an enormous emotional budget & considerably less cash
my packages will be small, the gifts few
when I am done my dad will be smiling; not for the outing but for the chance to help pick & choose gifts for his granddaughters & for my friends . . . maybe we’ll find something special for him too
the difference between a well chosen gift & the perfect gift is mixed timing & emotion; it has little to do with pricing, wrappings or indeed the quality of the design
the well chosen gift brings emotion to the surface just thinking about it many years later - it brings out the best in us
I look around my home, drawers & treasures - precious memories, gifts that matter so much – not for what they are but for what was going on between me & that person in my life at the time . . . or now . . or in the future
my ‘perfect gift store’ it would be stocked with memories, poignant moments, tears, laughter, pain & tight squeezes
for those of us on the top half of the world tonight is the longest of the year, tomorrow the shortest day –Winter Solstice - autumn morphs to winter as the Sun is at its lowest path in the sky as earth has been tilting more & more each day for six months – then, today it will tilt that last time stopping, unchanged tomorrow before starting a six month tilt back the other way
a perfect gift shopping day – full tilt !
Mark
a fitting day to start my Christmas shopping; store stocks at ‘manageable levels’ now
a short mall walk this afternoon with HK & his walker should do the trick to find perfect gifts
what made ‘perfect gift’ moments of Christmas past ?
I buy gifts for people in my life who matter to me - birthdays, Christmas & sometimes for no occasion at all – many are discarded, worn out or long forgotten
many are lost & gone not because of anything wrong with the choice, with the calibre of the gift . . but lost from memory for giver, receiver or both
some stand out
memories to last a lifetime
how do we do that ? . . I mean pick the perfect gift to give someone
how did I know that giving Krista that ‘oversized thing that looked like a toaster’ called a Hot-Diggety-Dogger would bring such joy to my hot-dog loving child ?
gifts I give & ones I receive have nothing to do with things or price tags or the occasion du jour
it is not the gifts but the moments that matter
is memory of opening the asked for ‘big gift’ may be meaningful or memorable for a short while; does it rank with a ‘ketchup incident’ or floating down a river in Alaska ?
or a note saying ‘I’ll plant you a rose garden’ ?
or just in the way they were wrapped - the disguised ones that used to thrill my kids still do I think as they think back or something wrapped with meaning, care & tears
‘souvenirs’ of Christmas past kept in drawers, hung on walls, tucked away, worn away or long ago thrown away
I’d like to send a solution to a friend with a problem, some healing to another for raw pain, some ‘company’ to someone feeling incredible loneliness, some putty to some waiting hands
from sea to see, from Calgary to Portland to Ottawa to Puerta Vallarta to Los Mochis, to Edmonton to many places & back I have memories
they touch deeply – some past, some present, some future
giving words, giving memories, giving an emotional hug that can stretch from here to there
from here to there in a pair of heartbeats – it does not matter if both parties are conscious of the gift or the thought
it is not an issue of being better to give than receive; it is a matter of having someone to care about, someone to spend emotion on
I’m shopping with an enormous emotional budget & considerably less cash
my packages will be small, the gifts few
when I am done my dad will be smiling; not for the outing but for the chance to help pick & choose gifts for his granddaughters & for my friends . . . maybe we’ll find something special for him too
the difference between a well chosen gift & the perfect gift is mixed timing & emotion; it has little to do with pricing, wrappings or indeed the quality of the design
the well chosen gift brings emotion to the surface just thinking about it many years later - it brings out the best in us
I look around my home, drawers & treasures - precious memories, gifts that matter so much – not for what they are but for what was going on between me & that person in my life at the time . . . or now . . or in the future
my ‘perfect gift store’ it would be stocked with memories, poignant moments, tears, laughter, pain & tight squeezes
for those of us on the top half of the world tonight is the longest of the year, tomorrow the shortest day –Winter Solstice - autumn morphs to winter as the Sun is at its lowest path in the sky as earth has been tilting more & more each day for six months – then, today it will tilt that last time stopping, unchanged tomorrow before starting a six month tilt back the other way
a perfect gift shopping day – full tilt !
Mark
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