By Joan Passarelli
Giving thanks for gifts from others - courage, humor, wisdom, strength from others
Unexpected kindness … help on a project … gracious, gentle leadership … a hug when I’m sad … supportive understanding in a hard time … abundant laughter - these gifts I receive from others are what I’m thankful for this season.
I recently attended our church’s annual women’s retreat and received all this and more. My eyes were opened to the bountiful gifts these women bring to our community. Courage, humor, wisdom, strength and peace flowed from them into me.
Feeling thankful for that experience, I realized that it’s true for the other groups I’m part of. Volunteers at school, soccer team parents, the people I hike with, all of them give me gifts every time I see them.
These aren’t perfect people, of course. Everyone I know struggles with plenty of things: family problems, money problems, diseases, stresses. Everyone is wounded.
Somehow, though, they experience joy and somehow they share it with me.
Earlier this month I attended my grandmother’s 90th birthday party. Over 40 relatives and friends came to celebrate her life and wish her well. Instead of bringing gifts, everyone told stories about her and her life. I heard how she had diligently taught her students, helped other teachers and led orchestras with her violin, as well as baking cookies for grandchildren.
My favorite stories, actually, were the ones about what she does now. Though nearly blind and quite forgetful, Grandma talks and listens to her friends and neighbors. She shares what she’s learned in her life, and creates a calm, healing place for them to tell her their stories.
She has lost so much - her husband, her eyesight, most of her memory- and yet she has so much to give.
I’m thankful for her and for all the people who told those wonderful stories. I’m thankful for everyone in my life who gives me blessings like that. And I hope I can learn to pass on those blessings myself.
Passarelli is the mother of three and attends St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, Mountain View.
