THE GIVING TREE

December 11, 2021

The Giving Tree. The Giving Tree is a book by Shel Silverstein. A lot of people read it to their children in the day, and a lot of people are still buying the book today, so many years later. If you haven’t read it, it is about a tree who loved a little boy very much. The tree gave everything she had to the boy. I will not reveal the whole plot, in case you ever want to read the book for the first time. I loved a little boy and I love trees, so it is a no brainer that at 73 years old I still have the book on my bookshelf. The point I am trying to make is that most people find giving is easier than receiving. What is the old saying, “It is better to give than to receive”? I am here to say, that it is selfish to always be the giver. To always have someone beholding to you. Sometimes it is a good thing to be the taker. At Christmas, how many people overindulge their children by buying them a million trillion presents? What do the children give their parents? Perhaps a hug of gratitude. A hug of love. Why is it that children need so much more than a hug? Why are almost all the presents under the tree for them? There was a time in our lives that my husband and I did not have very much money. So, under the tree there were three small presents. One for my husband, one for me and one of about the same size for our three-year-old son. There was appreciation all the way around. I don’t remember what had been in those boxes, but we were all happy and the love we had for each other could not have been bought in a store…even if we had had money. Appreciation is the way to keep everything in perspective. A lot of people have a tendency to say, oh you shouldn’t have, or you didn’t need to do that, or I can do it myself… I don’t need your help. And yet when we do something for someone else, we expect them to be grateful. After I fell the other day, I needed help. Kevin, a complete stranger to me, helped me get up and then drove me home. I thanked him, and he drove away. I needed to go to Urgent Care because I had done damage to myself. I could not drive. My daughter-in-law took me. Then she followed the ambulance that took me to the hospital. My son came to the hospital a bit later. They love me and wanted to help. I said thank you. I did not say you shouldn’t have, or I am sorry to cause you this inconvenience. I just said thank you. I am paraphrasing here. I said thank you, it was the short form of what I was thinking. I was thinking thank you for loving me, thank you for caring and thank you so much for helping me. That is what love is all about. It is about saying thank you. For being grateful for and appreciating the most important people in your life. I have been unsteady for a while and this is the second time I have fallen. I am experiencing some problem of unknown origin. Together. Together we will deal with it. Together we will do whatever it takes to get through whatever we have to get through. Today I am the target of concern. Some other day one of the important people in my life might need me to be there for them. Love is a circle, a revolving door. Everyone’s life connects with everyone else’s. Isn’t life grand? In life sometimes even a total stranger, like Kevin, can come to help of some other total stranger. It is the way it must work. Don’t always be on the giving side of it. Open your heart and your arms to the taking side of life too. I am so happy. I have had a couple of days to digest the fact that something is going on with me. I did not expect it, but life happens. How grateful I am to have people who love me. How grateful I am to be able to say thank you. We all are riding high sometimes, and then maybe we face a difficult situation of one kind or another, and then miracles of miracles we start smiling again because we are loved, and we are not alone. We again remember in short order, we are happy. We always remember to say thank you. Wow.

Granny-o