All Good Gifts

by redrose416

Last week, someone a care a great deal about said, “How are you not running the world by now??”  This person doesn’t usually give me compliments, so this was a pretty surprising outburst.  It absolutely tickled me…until I realized all of the potential that I do have, all of the gifts I’ve been gifted with, and the fact that I am, at the moment, not remotely up to par with the life that all of those blessings should have afforded me.  And it’s my own fault, of course, and something that weighs on me frequently. 

In a few weeks, I’m supposed to be giving a talk on gratitude.  This particular occurrence made me think about how much gratitude I have for all of the things I have been given, and I really do give thanks quite often.  But just saying thanks is really not enough…you have to use the gifts, or else it’s like you accepted them, said thank you, and then just threw them out.  And I know that there have been times that I’ve given someone a gift that they may not have expected, or wanted, or even appreciated at all, in the hope that a friend or loved one would find something new and interesting that they didn’t know about before.  And, sometimes, gifts can become burdens, like the Christmas beagle that is adorable in the box, but then turns out to be an actual responsibility…

My gifts, as of late, have become beagles.
And it’s definitely time to fix that.  Because, when I think about it, EVERYTHING in the world is a gift. 
Even the hard things…the most prevalent in my recent life, of course, being my relationship with a person whom I loved, and still love very much.  That relationship, in the most indirect and backhanded way, led me to the church, and has remolded this insecure little girl into a strong woman of mental and spiritual calm and conviction.  Sometimes gifts come as difficulties, and we have to see the learning in every situation, because we are here for just that one thing…TO LEARN. 

Right now, I am trying to learn how to use all of these beagles to take over the world.
Or…something like that…

Love to all, gentle readers.