This time of year, we are bombarded with messages that tell us that gifts mean love, that money spent means love, that the only way to show love is to spend money, preferably more money than one can actually afford to spend. Every kiss begins with jewelry purchased at the mall. Holiday traditions begin with expensive cars.
I know that the best gifts have a value to the heart and soul that have nothing to do with what they cost. Their value is in the sentiment and the weight of the emotion attached.
I have received gifts that cost a lot of money but they didn’t resonate with happiness and love. They weren’t given with great joy and thus didn’t feel valuable, important, special.
I have received gifts that didn’t cost much at all that made me smile and glow. My teenager managed to sneak in the makings for biscuits and my favorite apple butter for my birthday. It was a secret plan, and she knew I’d be so pleased with hot biscuits fresh from the oven covered in apple butter. Such happiness I felt and still feel when I consider all the planning involved.
Today I was surprised with something personal and sentimental, the what doesn’t matter. As I type this, the tv is on and telling the world that we need to buy sweaters, jewelry, more more more…and there’s really not anything I can think of that can be bought in a mall that would come anywhere near the specialness of this gesture on a cold winter afternoon.
The value and the price tag are not one and the same, ya dig?
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