Unknowing Gifts

"Be the change you want to see in the world." Gandhi
Reflect your positiveness onto others. One can see the person you truly are by what you reflect, the people you hang around, the things you do, the way you raise your children.

A forty-something year old friend of mine told me just before Thanksgiving of how she wanted to say grace at Thanksgiving dinner, but she was scared to do it because she didn't know what to say. I told her how I was raised, taught a simple and short verse to say before we ate each day. And I still use this simple and short verse when I bless the food.

Though I've been seated a many a dinner table where the hostess has magnificently asked for blessings for the food and the people. I'm always impressed by this. Once upon a time I wanted to be able to do the same. I would think about what to say, rehearsing variations of the words and phrases only to ultimately feel ackward the few times I got up the nerve to do it. I realized that I was defeating the purpose with fear. So one day I asked to give the blessing and I recited the simple and short verse I learned as a child: "Dear Lord. Thank you for this food we are about to receive to nourish our bodies. I thank you dear Lord for everything. Bless everybody everywhere. Amen."

This particular time after asking for blessings, although I was nervous, I really felt the words truth and I felt good. After this, I volunteered to give the blessing time and time again with each time feeling more thankful for the confidence in each word.

I told my friend how I made it a routine to ask this simple blessing at my own dinner table, with my own family and children, each person taking turns reciting this simple verse. Today my children are ages 20 and 15 and they know how to say grace at a dinner table. I am proud to have given the those words long ago and allowing them ot practice them throughout the years with the freedom to add their own words or change the entire blessing to suit them.

Back then, I did not look at the words I have taught them as a gift. But I clearly saw it for the gift that it was the day my friend told me of her fears. She asked that I recite the words again for her. She found some paper and wrote them down. She thanked me profusely and even texted me on Thanksgiving day to ask for them again since she had lost the paper she wrote them on. Then she thanked me some more. And guess what? I felt really good. It feels good to give, doesn't it? Especially when it's appreciated, and even when it's not. Even when it's just something that you do, something you don't realize actually impacts lives far beyond your own knowledge. And what I now realize is that she gave me a gift in return. Knowing. Knowing that my life practices, trials and tribulations that make me who I am today have been gifts to me that I unknowingly shared.

And now I know. What a blessing.