Gift giving

For spring break these past two weeks, I’ve been in Australia, which is why I haven’t been posting for some time.  Hopefully next week I will be able to post the recap of my trip...after I put together the photos I’ve taken along the way!

However, over the trip, I’d been thinking a lot about gift giving.  We bought gifts for my family in Australia and it was quite interesting to see each person’s reaction to the gift presented to them.  But really, I was thinking about how meaningful they were…almost a symbol for how well I knew the person.  Before break, when I was neatening up my room, I saw the gift my cousin from China gave me a few summers ago: a set of pencils that when lined up in the correct order like a puzzle, showed a picture of a red flower.  Thinking back, I remember how happy I was receiving that gift and how well I thought my cousin knew my taste.

I notice myself beginning to care more about gift giving as well.  I remember in the past, when I had to purchase gifts for friends for birthdays, I was a little more reckless.  I often saved the duty of shopping until there was barely enough time to purchase anything special.  In Australia these past two weeks, I did some shopping for gifts for my friends.  I put more thought into the shopping and I found myself genuinely caring more.  As I was walking out the store with the gift for my friend, I found myself repeatedly saying, I think she’ll really like it.  And that alone made me happy, to be able to give someone something I believe they’ll love.  

Gifts can be used as a symbol of appreciation, of recognition, of celebration, of tradition, of a holiday.  And what’s so beautiful about gifts is how differently they manifest themselves.  Parents give their children the gift of life, while friends may give each other the gift of a friendship.  There are concrete gifts and there are abstract gifts.  Either way, I’m beginning to see the power of gift giving and the resonance in each individual gift.