Gifts

My son-in-law celebrated his birthday today.  He was happy with his gifts.  But it set me to wondering.  Gifts are suppose to be pleasurable for the giver as well as the receiver.  Luckily, today fell into that category.

But I remember one time when my friends and I use to swap Christmas gifts.  We'd put a limit on our gifts--no more than $ 10.  To me that meant giving junk.  But they insisted; so I went along with it.  Otherwise you'd be considered a Scrooge.   I turned out to be worse than a Scrooge.  I was complaining about this to another friend and she listened politely.  When I was finished she handed me a gift and said, "Well, here's another piece of junk."

Ouch.

I did learn that lesson.  I learned to keep my mouth shut and just be happy.  I try to look at it as giving pleasure to someone.  But really.  I'm trying to simplify my life.  I don't need anything.  But I'll accept the giver's gifts graciously because I learned that the giver is trying to please me.  And it's not all about me.  The giver wants acknowledgement of their generosity and thoughtfulness.  I do appreciate that; I really do.