Last week I wrote about a precious gift I received out of the blue that made a major impact on me and continued to do so throughout the year. As I wrote in that column, a flood of memories and thoughts came pouring out on this topic. It was far too much to include in one version, so I chose to wait and add to this topic in future weeks. Gifts come in all shapes and sizes. They can be both tangible and intangible with often the intangible being the most prized possession.
My husband recently had open heart surgery and was told it would be quite a road to recovery. With a good bit of discussion, we decided he needed to bite the bullet or arrow and go make a large purchase of a type of crank bow that has little to no kick (or so he promises me) so he may be able to squeeze in a hunt or two by the end of the season.
Deep down I knew it was not so much the bow and arrow or the hunt that held such importance. It was far more a need for him to get some normalcy back after such a huge life event he had undergone. It was well worth dipping into savings.
In fact, most gifts, from a diamond ring to a squirrel proof bird feeder, hold more importance to us than just the objects themselves. When a person recognizes something that is important to you, something you enjoy, or value and wants to share that with you in a gift, that holds an even deeper meaning.
I lost my dear friend, Sherrie Margruder, a few years back to cancer. It was not something either of us dreamt in a million years would surface in our lives, but there it was like a thief in the night. We were given a good year to have some of the best talks we had shared in over two decades of friendship.
A couple of months before she passed, we were sitting in her living room, and she handed me a blue dish with yellow lemons. It was a small dish about the size of my hand. I asked her why she was handing it to me, and she explained she knew how much I loved yellow and blue and over the years every time she had looked at it, she thought about me, so I might as well have it.
That was the first time we had the unspoken conversation that she knew she was not going to be with me much longer, and she wanted me to have something to remember her by. But we didn't move in that direction with our talk because we didn't need to. I knew and she knew what she was wanting to say. It now sits on my bathroom sink and will continue to be a prized possession reminding me of a golden friendship.
The other day I was bustling around the house trying to get ready for my Garden Club Christmas party, changing out shoes and jewelry in frustration when Sherrie popped in my head. Years before that she had given me some silver clip-on earrings and a silver broach to wear to an event. She had tossed her hand like she often did and said, "You can just have them. I know you love those clip-ons." Digging into my drawer there they were in the old bag, and they looked perfect with my outfit. Not only that, I felt her gift of friendship was going with me to the party.
And that is the beauty of gifts in our lives. It is great we have objects of great value or of no value at all to remind us of the priceless value of the people and moments we love and hold dear. If it is giving us back a piece of ourselves we thought we lost, or a reminder of special people in our lives, a gift can say a thousand unspoken words.
