Here Come the Holidays, Again, with Gifts and Lasting Memories!

Over the years in my research about attention, I've collected hundreds of stories about people receiving and giving gifts. The bottom line is that gifts are all about attention. The emotionality around this particular event is staggering. People often retain memories of their favorite gifts throughout their entire lives. I've heard detailed descriptions that are often over fifty years old.

I have a story myself. My grandmother never had much money to spend, but I felt she always had a special birthday gift for me. She'd bought the kind of birthday card that had ten slits for dimes, which she took the time to fill. While, I really received only one dollar, I received so much more; I knew she'd been thinking about me enough to collect the ten dimes; that thrilled me.

Then there are memories of the gifts that hurt or left a bad feeling. A friend of mine was a dedicated model maker. When his parents asked him what he wanted for the holidays, he told them the exact number of a new model he was wishing for. Every year when he opened his gift with great expectations, he was disappointed. The model in the box was just not the one he had asked for. He felt his parents had not even listened and did not really care what he wanted.
Gift-giving could almost be considered an art form. This action involves thought, respect, presence and imagination.

In another sense, gifts carry an essence of who we are and how we feel about ourselves. Are we emotionally generous or are we emotionally tight? Do other peoples' needs and wants really mean something to us? We are gifts to ourselves and others, if we care to think with that perspective. Our time can be a tremendous gift to others. Sharing our wisdom and skills with another can be a most meaningful gift. Volunteering to be a mentor is a gift. To look at the bigger picture, when we do any charitable work, we are giving a gift of ourselves.

There are abundant stories where one person can make a huge difference in a person's life forever; A High School Auditorium was recently going to be named after a drama teacher, who was dying earlier than expected. When his old students, most of whom were professionals in the movie and television business, heard about his immanent death, they insisted on having the party early, because all of them had stories to tell of his impact on their lives. They spoke of his listening, his driving them home after rehearsals, his giving them snacks to keep their energy up, his total support of their work.

Listening...what a gift. Have you ever asked someone what they really wanted? Have you ever suggested sharing feelings with another or even sharing a silence with someone else, when someone just wants you near?

When someone is ill, and you volunteer to bring something in or run an errand for them, that is a gift. How about asking to help when someone's plate is too full with responsibilities, such as elderly parents or a new baby's arrival home to young siblings, or someone's moving away who can't keep up with its demands?

The best gifts of all don't have to cost anything! Right now when the financial world is in such chaotic shape, it is well to think outside of the traditional box, so to speak, to imagine a new type of gift-giving, one where we give of ourselves, where we really make a difference to the receiver.

Written for EzineArticles.com