looking through me

It’s December—mid-December—and I haven’t so much as made a shopping list. I’ve thought a lot about gifts, but those thoughts aren’t falling into place by person and item.

So today I’m making a different list—a list of gifts I’ve received in the last year:
An invitation to a grief group.
A new niece.
A freedom to let go of my perceived place at the table.
A glimpse of glory driving into the sunrise morning after morning.
A powerful word of affirmation from one of my writing mentors.
A week with extended family in Michigan.
An unexpected job offer.
An understanding of sacred space . . . in a cemetery.
A greeting of “Welcome Home!” on my first day at the new job.
A long weekend in one of my favorite places.
A series of new opportunities to work and serve out of my giftings.
A spiritual director.
A community blended of older and newer connections.
A good conversation amongst introverts about being an introvert in the church.
A chance to teach and remember what I love about it.
A long-distance session of peekaboo over Skype with an eleven-month old.

This list is laughable in its incompleteness, which says so much about how rich I am and what good gifts I regularly receive.

And it’s reframing my thoughts on that list of gifts to give . . .