We Come Bearing Gifts

That we are meant to give.

Some gifts are favored over others. A hypersensitivity to rainbows and poetry may not be as well regarded as accounting and marketing. We artsy types know what we’re up against. We know our gifts are hard to give to the world with its eyes on efficiency.

I subscribe to the idea that we are born with gifts that under good circumstances will unfold over a lifetime. I think of Pablo Casals’ response to the question of why he still practiced his cello at the age of 90. “I think I’m making progress,” he said. That’s a man giving his life to his gift, organizing his earthly existence around it.

I would be surprised if anyone born came into this world without at least one gift. Our job is to discover and nurture them. For a few people that’s easy, but for most of us it involves some struggle.

You may have a gift the world around you doesn’t understand or want. That situation will require you to make an effort for your reason to live.

Usually there is a mix of encouragement and discouragement as you learn to value what is in you from birth. Sensitive children can be persuaded that they’re wrong and become inured to the suffering of not being who they truly are. I believe most of the discouragement comes from those who were raised to deny their own gifts.