Gift giving is an expression of love

My mother was a master of gift giving.  

Before big family celebrations, she delighted in going to the nearby educational toy store to search for just the right thing for each child in our large extended family.   Her smile literally lit up the room as each opened their gifts, feeling her love, the love of a family for its generations, generously pouring out of the perfectly wrapped boxes.  

Somehow, like so many other beautiful aspects of our human culture, gift giving has become a source of stress, or a measurement of how much someone has or has not. 

In its essence

giving a gift is a practice of gratitude

the pure gratitude that comes from 

recognizing 

what we have

taking a moment to notice

and honor

this larger web of life that holds us all. 

Those gifts we give

are messengers

offerings to life

expressions of the love we carry

for others

and for ourselves

When is the last time you gave yourself a gift?

Ayni - a concept of exchange and gratitude from the Andes - 

from my heart

to my hands

to your hands

to your heart

from your heart 

to your hands

to her hands 

to her heart

and so on

and 

on 

and 

on 

for generations

in the eternal exchange that is 

the inhale and exhale

of life. 

Giving and receiving

ongoingly 

in the constant flow of the waters

of the breath of life

in our relation with the trees. 

May the gifts we give be the deepest expressions of our loves. 

May the gifts we receive flow in the channels of the waters of love in our bodies. 

Thank you

That we are able to give and receive.