Giving

I was just thinking of the nice and popular story "The Gift of The Magi", which is told often around Christmas time to illustrate the true meaning of giving. It is also a story about love and I have always liked it.  In it, a poor couple, in search of the perfect Christmas gift, each gives up the thing that he or she values most in order to buy something for the other: for the woman, her beautiful, thick, long tresses, for the man, a precious watch which his  father had given to him.

One Christmas, with no money to buy a gift for one another, the woman decides she will cut off and sell her hair in order to be able to buy a gold chain for her husband's prized watch. The husband in turn decides to sell his watch in order to buy a set of fancy combs to adorn his beloved's hair. When the couple reveal their gifts to each other, they realize they were now useless but were touched deeply by the sacrifice the other had made.

It is a nice reminder of how when we give with an open heart, we get back much more in return. You and I have been talking a lot lately about how to take care of one another and how to make each other happy despite the distance between us. Sometimes we are better at it than at other times.  Tonight for example you decided to make time for us to share in a meaningful way even though it was during the time of day when you would normally go running, which is something you enjoy doing for yourself and which is part of your daily routine. When I asked you why you were not going running when you normally would, you replied, 'Because you are my priority.' I was really surprised and happy and at the end of our nice talk, I encouraged you to go for your run anyway and not to miss it. It seems easy to give and to be worried about the other's needs when you feel that they are also taking care of yours. I hope you had a nice run and that you thought about us all along the way.