A lady rushes to the post office to mail a package. Inside is a quilt she made as a surprise birthday gift for a childhood friend—her best bestie. She spent hours upon hours sewing with the one intent to make her friend happy. She even included pictures of them when they were young copied onto some of the blocks in the quilt. Needless to say the quilt could never be duplicated—never replaced—not exact. As the lady walked home, she thought about how much excitement this friend would have when opening her gift. Oh, to be there… The whole purpose was to make the friend happy for her birthday. They could not be together so this was the next best thing.
Days went by. Two weeks passed. The lady heard nothing about the package. No thank-you, nothing. The lady started to get a little agitated. Here she spent all of this time on this one gift and her friend wasn’t even courteous enough to thank her. Imagine. Who would do that?
The lady became angry. She was so mad. How dare this friend do this to her. She began thinking what she could do to get back at the friend for not thanking her. It wasn’t right that she be overlooked. She emailed at first—still no mention of the quilt. She called once—no mention of the package at all. What could she do since her friend was evidently not going to acknowledge all of the hard work that went into this project—a project of love? Not be friends anymore? Hmmm… She began to wish bad things on the friend and even write bad things to her. If she only knew. If she only knew…
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This is another fictitious story that is based on a true story—one that is very hurtful. In both stories, the gift never arrived. The packages were lost in transit. That option never occurred to the lady or to the person in the real story. Both were willing to judge their friends and hurt them for no reason. Is this true friendship?
Never assume what you do not know. Put yourself in the friend’s shoes. The friend never knew the gift existed. How could she know? A gift is a gift, period. There are no strings attached; no return gift; no thank-you is necessary 🙂 … hear me out, please. If you are holding something against a person because they didn’t thank-you for something, I am sorry. We probably all do that to an extent—wishing for acknowledgement but truth is we should never expect gratitude. The reason is that when gratitude comes, we are blessed because we receive–not because of “payment” in return. Gifts are free. There are no—NO—strings attached because if there were, it wouldn’t be a gift. It doesn’t change the fact that we should acknowledge and be thankful when we receive but when we give, we can’t expect anything in return. I wish people understood that. We would be so much happier.
How many of us did (or do) keep Christmas card lists of everyone who sends a Christmas card from the year before in order to repay the next year with a card? It is like trading Valentine’s – in my opinion. “Here is yours—where is mine?” An awful thought when we put it that way, isn’t it? This is just one example of many. We need to let the petty things go. We need to forgive. 🙂
Stories will continue. I hope they bless you in some way but be warned that some of them are less than fictitious. 😉
Happy Gardening! 😀
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