It is good to enjoy receiving gifts.
It is great to enjoy receiving gifts without any emotional baggage. As in your own emotional baggage, not the gift’s.
To think, someone cared for you emotional state enough to get you something they thought you would enjoy.
And yes, again I am getting away from the requisite giving that is so typified in the media and our culture (and even more so in other cultures judging by recent conversations). This isn’t the required polite receiving of some polite gift that was given because it was expected and received with a polite smile because the amount of emotion on the receiving end equalled that of the giving end.
I’m talking about having a gift in your hands that as you look upon it your heart glows. It makes you laugh. Or it fulfills a need. Or it satisfies an itch you didn’t even know you had. It speaks to you. And it’s FOR YOU.
I’ve long believed that we experience love through attention. When we are on the receiving end of positive attention, we feel loved (having your birthday remembered, receiving a gift you really wanted and so clearly the other person had paid attention to you, being asked about your day and the examples could continue forever).
Receiving a gift is taking in love.
Without commitment or expectation.
NO STRINGS ATTACHED.
If there was a string attached then it wasn’t a fucking gift and it doesn’t belong in this conversation.
Wow, taking in love.
As I type, I think “hey, this is why Santa is such a strong, beloved archetype!”
What is this lunatic talking about?
Think about it. Santa is the ultimate gift giver, right? He gives to all he loves (generally portrayed as all who are “good”), freely, without any expectation of return, no strings at all.
Which means that when you receive a gift from Santa, all you have to do, ALL you have to do is receive it. Take it in. Take that freely given love into your heart. You get to enjoy the gift without any guilt or need to reciprocate. Something I think many people have a hard time doing when the gift is from someone known. But Santa? His gifts are safe to receive.
I received gifts this yule. And each one was unexpected and appreciated. And ZERO fretting over anyone who didn’t give a gift. Because there was no need for gifts to be given. No need = no requirement = no guilt. Gods, I love things that come without guilt.
This receiving isn’t the greedy grasping of a selfish child. This is the glorious receiving of the open and essentially hopeful child.
This Yule I let myself take in the gifts of my friends, from the physical to the spiritual, the joy of their company to their funny stories.
Yes, gifts range far beyond the physical, and many of them arrive when we’re not paying attention.
Time to wake up and take it in. Let it all in. Receive the gifts that are waiting for your hands to open to take them in.
~Abysmal Witch