Friday, November 26, 2004

Have you ever received a present you didn't open? Did you ever receive a package that you set aside and simply forgot to ever open? Not likely, for that is one of the greatest pleasures in life, isn't it? To receive a gift - even a free token in the mail - to open, amidst our wonder and anxiousness. Perhaps this is why Christmas, birthdays and anniversarys rank as some the most profound annual events for individuals.

And what of those gifts that you received from your children, neices or nephews? Those homemade gifts caressed into existence by childlike love are some of the most treasured gifts. Gifts of all shapes and sizes from friends and family, given solely from the heart with no strings attached. Brilliant colors and dazzling ribbon adorning the unknown and precious gifts of our life...

And the greatest gift you behold, my friend, lies within your vision: your own life journey. A gift given in all its infant purity and glory; a gift to be opened each and every day in its own brilliant hue. Yet so many of us treat our day as a gift unworthy of opening. We close our heart. We close our mind. We close our life. We refuse to touch the wrappings and ribbons, sure that it will only open to more of the same apathy, heartache and disappointment we've already experienced in our life. But within that gift remains fresh and overwhelming love, hope, grace, forgiveness, joy, laughter and a host of wonderful experiences that often are interspersed among the apathy, heartache and disappointment.

But the task still remains your choice, my friend. It takes a much greater amount of courage to live your life than it does to retreat from it or to avoid it. It is our task to walk straight through the fires of our days until we get to our special gift and then tear into the wrappings of our daily life. Take time to see what's truly inside the gift of your daily life, friend - it was freely given to you as a gift, with nothing attached to it but an Endless Love.