Gifts

I am not sure if any of you experience this, but I find myself constantly being presented with gifts.
Gifts of all different shapes and sizes.  Some of these gifts are very interesting, some more ordinary.  Many of these are so well disguised, they don't even appear to be gifts at all when first presented.  There are surprise gifts that I didn't expect, and others that I knew were coming for a long time. 
I was born into a stable, loving home, giving me a head start on lots of  others right off the bat.  I live in a country that guarantees relative freedom and safety.  I am fortunate enough to have a nice warm home to live in and a good job to go to every day.  I can always afford to buy groceries, not to mention lots of other frivolous things I don't even need.
The biggest and best gift I ever receive though, is that of opportunity.  Not necessarily opportunity to go somewhere, do something, or even accomplish something, but the opportunity to learn!
Almost every interaction I have with anyone presents this opportunity if I am paying attention.  Sometimes, it seems like the well disguised gifts are the only ones I get, but I know full well this is not true.  The well disguised ones usually come in the form of some trouble, heartache or ailment, but I have found that these can be far and away the best teachers.
I will give one example from my life, but I know there are thousands of the more mundane ones.  The key is paying attention and being aware, and sometimes the payout doesn't happen right away, but more slowly, even over years.
On Sept 11/1983, I was minding my own business, doing something that I love when an 82 year old lady made a small error in judgement and turned left, right in front of me and my bike.  My memories of the actual event are a bit jumbled and have some gaps for sure.  It wasn't until at least a few weeks later as I lay immobilized in a hospital bed that I rec'd an early lesson from this.  I was 20 at the time and even more full of myself than I am now, if you can imagine!  I really had no thoughts of anyone but myself.  I certainly couldn't see at the time that this horrible accident was actually much harder on those that loved me than it was on me.  After the first week or so, I came out of the drug induced stupor.  Mom and Dad visited, if not every day, almost every day from Arthur.  This is at least a 1.5 hour drive one way.  It was after a couple weeks of this, that Dad showed up on his own one day.  I didn't give it much thought until he started a conversation with me about why Mom wasn't there.  He basically told me that my attitude at the time was making it extremely painful for Mom to visit.  This was a real eye opener to me.  I thought, "you mean this isn't all about me??".  I was feeling so sorry for myself, and looking back, probably had a lot of anger at the time too.  My demeanor was that of a selfish child who had been hurt and needed to whole world to feel sorry for him.  I am happy to say, I have come a long way from that time, and I could probably write a whole book on the lessons I learned from just that one conversation, but I think you get the idea.  This same accidental gift keeps on giving to this day in the form of much greater awareness and appreciation of my physical well being, among other things. 

"Each day provides its own gifts"
Marcus Aurelius

Love Holij