Presents or Presence?  What do people want?  Which will you give?

As the calendar year ends, we enter the holy season—the holidays—and magically begin to open ourselves to more giving and more receiving.  When I stop to think about the gifts that mean the most to people, I think of connection, wisdom, acceptance, understanding, compassion and love.

When we can believe in someone, see them for who they are, and understand them to a point of feeling compassion and unconditional love for them, then we can be present with them.  That is the gift that people seek beneath the materialism of good gestures: to be loved, noticed, heard, understood, and felt.

How can your presence be a gift in your world?  In your workplace?  In your home?  Who are you a gift to at this very moment in your life?  What is it that you do that makes you a gift to those people?  Please take time to contemplate your answer.  This is precisely where your presence makes all the difference in your world.  This is where you are the hope, the miracle, the blessing and the love to those who need you the most.

Paramount to being able to give these things to others, we must also be able to give them to ourselves, and receive these gifts by letting them in.  When we strive to be our best, it is a gift to those we love.  When you live in a way that gives people hope, you can inspire them too.  They may think, “If she can do that, then I can do it too”, or “If he has overcome those challenges, then I can strive harder to overcome mine.”

When we lead our own lives and strive toward the highest version of ourselves, we could be bringing even a tiny bit of light into someone else’s darkness—in the form of comfort, safety or guidance.  You may lead yourself in hopes to inspire a certain person who does not follow your lead.  Remember, “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear”.  Don’t look for those you are not inspiring, but instead find evidence of those you are inspiring and stay motivated to walk your path of being their gift of hope, light and wisdom.  Remember that wherever you are on your path, there is someone behind you who has bigger challenges.  Be the gift of presence to that person.  Likewise, there is also someone ahead of you, and that person will most likely be a gift to you.  Receive them.

Motivation seems to come from wanting to get more. The prospect of more money, time, fame or recognition drives us to want to do what it takes to have these things, but permanent abundance and prosperity come from looking more deeply into what you can give to the world.  When asking “What can I give? How can I serve? What are my highest behaviours?”, we find more than motivation.  We find hope, determination, perseverance, and a sense of purpose.

So this season, don’t look for the gift; be the gift.  Don’t look for the light to shine on you; be the light.  Don’t look for the love; be the love.  Rather than looking for the blessing, be the blessing.  Don’t ask for hope; be the hope.  Don’t expect the miracle; be the miracle.

Give your pure presence to others.  There is no better gift.

Blessings for a wonderful Holiday season,