Natural Gifts

Giving the Gift

“So when we seek our own birthright gifts, it is important not to equate them with the techniques our society names as skills. Our gifts may be as simple as a real interest in other people, a quiet and caring manner, an eye for beauty, a love of rhythm and sound.”
Parker Palmer (The Active Life)

One of my sons is a gifted artist. He paints and draws and sees the world in a different way than most. He was born with the gift. I remember giving him a white board and markers for his third birthday so that he wouldn’t create crayon murals on the walls of our house. When he was about five, he went through six rolls of colored tape to create a spider web on a wrought-iron banister going down the stairs to the family room. I left it up until we put the house on the market because it was beautiful. Every birthday and Christmas, each family member is given an original piece of art—my house is filled with his paintings. Today, he is a business executive. His gift and his vocation are not the same thing.

I have a friend who is retired now, but made her living as an educational psychologist. She worked almost exclusively with adults with disabilities and established one of the first Americorps programs to train personal assistants for people with cognitive and physical challenges. Her gift is a caring and compassionate heart. She has published one book about Americans with disabilities and another about the women who live in one of Birmingham’s homeless shelters.

Gifts are meant to be shared. They may or may not be parlayed into vocations, but they are always the clearest expression of soul that we have to offer the world. One of the most important jobs of any parent is to see the gifts of each child and provide support and encouragement for them. Long after a career is over our gifts will feed our hearts and spirits and serve the world. What is your gift? How are you sharing it?

In the spirit,
Jane