Giving is a joy.
Yes, gifts, whether we give or receive, bring smiles, laughter, and happiness, all of which get imprinted in our precious memories. Even when these gifts are gone, the love that they once brought stays (at least for as long as we are able to remember). =)
Yet in life, gifts are not just limited to Birthday gifts, Christmas cards, flowers, candies, or all those physical things wrapped in pretty decorative papers. Giving is much more than about gifts. Giving is an act, a notion, and a symbol of human beings’ innate nature of sharing. Every gift in life comes back to this notion. It’s a simple pleasure of sharing what one has with another, and seeing the happiness that you bring on another person’s face. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a dazzling diamond ring, or a warm bowl of scrumptious soup. It can just be a hearty bear hug from your loved one or even a random smiling stranger! What matters is that genuine feeling of elation that lights up and warms one’s heart.
If giving itself is a great act, wouldn’t it be much greater if what we give is for the best of the one who receives?
This got me pondering.
What possibly is the greatest gift one can receive? Something that is not a mere object. Something that is useful not just for once but over and over again. Something that can last for a long, long time. Something that will not be lost. Perhaps, something that will even become a part of this person, and grow with time.
Not 1, but 3 gifts came to my mind.
Life
Love
Liberation
Life
All of us have already received this greatest gift on the day we were born! What can be more useful for living creatures like us than life itself, without which we simply would not be here today? Whether we have asked for it or not, we are here today, living. For that, we need life.
Mothers give their children life. Fathers too, biologically and in other means.
Doctors save patients, giving them life once again by bettering their health. So do the people who rescue others in one way or another. The examples go on and on.
How, then, can we give life in terms of everyday? It’s not like every 24 hours we can make babies nor many of us are doctors, nurses, researchers, scientists, rescuers or humanitarian heroes. And it’s not like in the games, we can give another player a heart shape or a mushroom that says “1 UP”!
True, but we can give anything, anything at all that contributes to our living hours. A glass of water. A packet of cookies. A pill of vitamin. Food. Nutrition.
A kind and caring friend of mine bought all the teachers an apple each for the Teachers’ Day. In many ways, a free meal is worth much more than an expensive trendy Iphone cover.
Love
“I love you.” is the most beautiful sentence one can ever hear. It’s not an overrated statement.
All the human beings are capable of loving and yearn to be loved the same, with well maybe few exceptions. This love can be defined in any manner. This love can take any form: Unconditional motherly love, Sibling love, Friendship, Romance, Bromance, Compassion for a fellow human being… Any form of love at all.
When this love, pure and divine on its own, untainted by other human emotions of wants, needs, fears, insecurities, and implications, is the best gift one can ever give to another and even to oneself.
Because this love will not only feed one’s heart, it will make the person do wonders. It will spur the person to develop in all dimensions, making a better human being out of him/her. This in turn grow more love which flows back and all around, like streams into rivers, rivers into oceans, from oceans back to all of us, chain and cycle of love. Love is what makes us humans. What can be a better gift than to give us what makes, us?
So hug your best friend. Hold a crying baby. Smile at a lonely stranger. Kiss your tired mum on her lovely cheeks and help her with the dishes after dinner. Sing a song for anyone who wants to listen. Forgive the one who has hurt you. Show the one you love that you love him/her. When you do any of these, mean it, feel the love. You will never see a smile brighter. =)
Liberation
In other word, freedom.
This gift is so much more subjective. But basically, we say that a man is born free and so should remain free.
Tangibly, we are talking about literally freeing the life of another living thing. A man living behind bars because of false accusations. A young child forced into child labor. A living crab caught and tied up to be cooked for dinner.
Intangibly, we are talking about emotional liberation. When was the last time you were trapped within your own thoughts and delusions, until a sudden burst of inspiration freed you from all the darkness, and your vision suddenly became crystal clear?
In other word, truth.
Remember when you were told lies and you were living with false information until someone told you the truths, and you finally saw the light?
Truth, whether good or bad, liberates. And only when one is liberated, he/she will be able to live life, and be able to love fully. These all come back, intertwine and contribute to each other, don’t they? =)
WELL!
There you are, the best 3 gifts you can ever give!
On a side note:
If they are, this means too that, the worst crime you can ever commit is to rob a person of any of the above 3 things.
To kill.
To deny love.
To take away one’s liberty of thoughts and actions. To deceive another.
At the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter what you give, but what you give with and how you give, just like Mother Teresa said,
” It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
I am alive today because of the special individuals in my life and all the others who have blessed me with any of the priceless gifts above:
Given me life, keeping me alive till today.
Taught me how to be loved and love.
Enlightened me with lessons, truths, visions, wisdom and light on life and everything in between.
Because of you, I live, and I cannot thank you enough. Because of you, I will live on, and with all that I can, keep on giving back life, love and liberation to all those that I can. =)
Giving is a joy.
Keep giving. =)
Pi
20th October 2011
Pi's Perspectives 
