Your Gift

I believe that EVERYONE has a gift.

As a society I believe that we have learned to focus more on personal gratification rather than finding the gifts that we have been blessed with.  Those gifts are the very things that we can use to not only be personally happy, but to bring joy to others.  

My daughter likes to dance.  When we attend her recitals we are not expecting that the young girls are going to be the Rockettes, but they are pretty darn good.  When they stand on that stage they are smiling and stepping and their spirit ripples through the entire crowd. Whether she realizes it or not she is using her gifts of a beautiful smile and coordinated feet to make other people happy. 

I believe that when a painter does a picture it is a piece of themselves that they are laying onto the canvas.  It is their emotions that blend with the colors.  It is their imagination that creates every line.  They are willing to allow that piece of themselves to be placed directly in front of them as though staring straight into a mirror, and then exposing that image to everyone else.  

Writing is no different in that regard.  Or singing.  Or playing a sport.  The person willing to use that gift is assuming the risk of "failure" in order to do the thing the were called to do. These are not the only gifts however.  For some people their gift is to make other people laugh or smile.  For others they may have the gift of telling great stories.  Others may be gifted at being compassionate and caring for others.  But we need to ask ourselves two very important question.  First, what IS my gift?  And secondly, am I using that gift to bring happiness to myself and others?

I think of my painter friend Tom.  He has a tremendous talent for bringing an entire story to life with a single image.  You are not just looking at his subject, but you can feel yourself being in that very place.  Tom obviously has taught himself to translate his emotions and vision onto a plain white piece of paper.  But what impresses me even far more than that is the joy he receives by placing that work into someone else's hands.  We have 2 of his paintings and they mean the world to us because we know the heart that they come from. Right now he is working on a collection which will be auctioned off for a local charity benefiting special needs families.

The point is, in order to make the world a better place we have to use the gifts we have been given to contribute the best way we can.  We have to share our knowledge to enhance someone else's life.  If you share your gift with others, you can never go wrong, you will never fail.  Most importantly, you may touch someone's life in ways that you can never fully understand.

Be well and God bless.   Tom