This is the season for gifts. Some will read that, and grieve for the commercial, as do I.
Gifts are not to be like that, but rather an expression (extension) of something intangible.
A brother gave me a fan on my trip south, and it still provides air that cools on those summer nights on the hook without a breeze. When I turn it on, it reminds me of the support of a friend.
Another met me at his dock with a dinner of fried chicken while I was on a journey... the kindness of a stranger no longer but of a friend... a beautiful thing.
I opened a box yesterday, and in it found a beautiful thing. Another dear friend had sent me a part of his ship. He had made an inlay of part of a drawer (from his old world) and part of the wood from the toerail of his ship.... combined with one of my favorite pictures of my own vessel.
Now, this brother and I are close as are both of our vessels. Both drawn by the same hand, and once I considered buying it but wound up with a greater privilege of sharing in it's journey to his stewardship. I do not regret sharing that I was moved by this... it is a blessing that I will not forget.
Gifts take many forms. It is sad that so many are given as an expression of a mandatory fulfillment of a tradition and are quickly for gotten... So it is in our material world... These gifts are oft forgotten by time, neither expense or intent enough to preserve them.
Others, will last as long as we live.
Thank you to my many great friends and for the many gifts we have given and received.
Blessings and Fair Winds upon you.
Years ago there was a TV show called "7th Heaven." In this show about a family with 7 children, they had a 'rule' at birthdays - the gifts given had to be something that belonged to the giver (and he/she was passing along something that had meaning) or something the giver made.
I always thought that a wonderful idea.
I guess it was about 10 years ago or so, maybe a little less, I became acutely aware that at Christmas, my extended family was giving me stuff that had no meaning to them or to me. It almost seemed like they went into Walmart with $100 and said to themselves "buy something to wrap up and fill a space under the tree."
I became VERY torn between discarding the stuff that I did not need (and wouldn't last anyway) and feeling some appreciation to the giver. I've since told them that the best gift they can give me is to not give me anything....give the money they would otherwise spend to someone else.
Within our family, I've come to ask my children to make me presents for birthday and the like. I find these are my favorite gifts...they draw me pictures, make 'cards,' etc, and this gives me a little window into who they are at the time they make it. Yes, I need socks sometimes, and while it'd be cool to have them make me a pair of socks, I will settle on store-bought ones! But otherwise, a hand drawn horse, or aliens attacking a space ship, or crabs eating at the water's edge connect me with them in a way nothing else can.
From this, I've also come to rediscover the joy of GIVING a gift that I have made or something that means something to me. A friend mentioned once he needed another anchor, and I had one in that size range, so I gave it to him. I have since found that I do miss it a little bit...though too small to anchor my boat properly, it DID serve well as a light stern hook (like for coming to a dock with a foul wind, etc). That I miss it adds to my sense of having given something valuable to him.
I hope that it makes sense that I'm trying to agree with the sentiment that gifts connect us; you just wrote it much better than I. ;)
May all here see the many gifts in their lives....
Peace, good will, and Fair Winds to all.
:)
Well, for a gift I just gave Craig his 200th sailFar Virtual Grog, and Smollett his 213th - which aren't much but a token, until they show up in person in order to redeem them for the real thing... ;D
"Mele Kalikimaka!" to all of you who celebrate it, and "Fair Winds, Peaceful Seas, and Far Shores" to everyone for the Holidays. Thanks for being a part of sailFar!!! :)
Capt. K I want to thank you for creating this site. In the time I have been here it has brought me inspiration and helped keep the dream alive. I touch in several sites and this is the one that I come to about every day just to see whats new and maybe pick up something I can use to make my boat better and a little bit safer. again thank you for working so hard to keep this site going
Ditto. And he'd be even better if he didn't FORCE visitors to imbibe so much rum ;D ;D ;D
Quote from: CharlieJ on December 23, 2011, 10:28:08 AM
Ditto. And he'd be even better if he didn't FORCE visitors to imbibe so much rum ;D ;D ;D
Hmmm....that's not the way I heard it ;D
But no matter how it comes down I really appreciate all you guys do and the friendship that comes along with it. I consider it all a big gift to me.
Happy Holidays
I also would like to thank all of you... fells like Iam having friends out there. The greatest gifts -I think- is to having a loving and caring family...
here's one from Christmas evning. Me and my new camera, My Wife Eva, and my youngest Billy.
Quote from: s/v Faith on December 11, 2011, 10:39:52 PM
Gifts are not to be like that, but rather an expression (extension) of something intangible.
Gifts take many forms. It is sad that so many are given as an expression of a mandatory fulfillment of a tradition and are quickly for gotten... So it is in our material world... These gifts are oft forgotten by time, neither expense or intent enough to preserve them.
Others, will last as long as we live.
Words and actions are gifts that can mean more than "stuff." Stuff is cheap. Intent matters. Commercialization sucks -- just checking a box. Christmas gets harder every year.
A friend recently wrote;
"As I get older, my Christmas list gets shorter.... And the gifts no longer fit under the tree."
Now-a-days, I want little in the way of physical gifts. Most everyone I know (over, let's say 30) are pretty much trinketed out. That makes gift giving very, very difficult.
Given a choice, I much prefer giving (and receiving) experiences. Theater tickets. Dinners out. A gym membership. Whatever. Or, a gift of time. I am thrilled to give a day taking care of household chores like installing ceiling fans, fixing washing machines, replacing busted fixtures, etc... The best Christmas/birthday/anything gift I had received in years was when my mother made new cabin cushion covers. I bought the material, she provided the labor. A funny thing, though, she couldn't just do the sewing and ended up buying some memory foam to put on the top. To her, her labor wasn't valuable, and her real gift was the memory foam topper. To me, having her stitch up the cushion covers was beyond generous, and I could not care less about the foam topper. Heck, I'm thinking about asking her to redo some of the cushions in the new boat. I just don't know if I can convince her that she does not need to dip into her limited Social Security check in order to improve the product.
Great post Godot !!
The cushions must be special to you!!!
I love your "gift of time and services" rather than items!!
Best gift I received the last few years was free car washs. Loved them!!