{re}gift
December 4, 2012 § 2 Comments
Each holiday season my husband and children seek to uncover my Christmas wish. Fickle in my likes and unimpressed by grand gestures, I tend to wish for intangible things that cannot be wrapped in ribbon. This year, aware that even the littlest elves want to watch their gift uncover a smile of genuine gratitude I have been sifting through sentimental trappings for inspiration. These are my wishes:
A memory. The sight of my children’s handwriting preserving a special moment that I can experience from their perspective.
A book. Pages rifled by a friend’s hand would be well placed on my shelf.
A photograph. Images of moments long passed are snapshots of self we sometimes cannot see.
I have no use for decorations or jewelry, my treasures are inexpensive keepsakes of fortunes untold. This year I am wishing for pieces of the past recycled consciously among the present to cherish for days to come.
wish lists & inspiration
December 10, 2011 § Leave a comment
Throughout the year as my children stumble across new items of interest I instruct them gently to create a wish list. To set their hopes firmly on paper so that they may return to an item and contrast it among other wishes, editing their wants with a more concrete perspective. Some items are spontaneous and fleeting, quickly forgotten and never cemented in writing. Others linger throughout seasons and inspire plans and daydreams.
As the holiday season drew near, I asked my children to consider their wish lists and share a wish with Santa and a couple wishes with family that we might all know better where their interests rest. Amusingly, lists and letters to Santa sat incomplete. My son couldn’t put a finger on a wish. My daughter shifted focus to what the rest of us might appreciate. My husband shrugged his shoulders and I could not come up with a singular suggestion for myself. We are content, as is.
With this in mind I shifted my focus from fulfilling a wish, to creating something joyful. I turned off the television and refused to allow clever advertising campaigns to cast false dreams. I began with new lists centered in recent conversations and then considered how I might inspire creativity or celebrate individual interests.
I imagined gifts that might fill Christmas day with happy surprises and activities; toys that fit into the space of my children’s days and would feel at home among old favorites; well-loved book titles and things to make rather than things already made in another’s vision. The gifts are not excessive or extravagant, but wrapping them I was filled with anticipation for my children’s reactions.
less is more
February 16, 2011 § Leave a comment
I confess, I bought into glossy magazine images and clever advertising campaigns bearing false promises of happiness. Wish list items earmarked for special days, gifts for my children, were wrapped in anticipation of frantic hugs and declarations of love. A wish fulfilled gave an illusion of happiness. Suspended between perpetual anticipation and celebration, it took me a while to recognize disappointment beneath this exchange. The wish list items were quickly forgotten and momentary joy faded into new expectations.
When I stopped participating in this familiar pattern, my perspective became clearer and I saw my children more fully. My son finds joy using familiar tools in new ways. My daughter similarly seeks out creative expression with eclectic pieces of broken toys and art tools. Imagination is their greatest resource and their own standard of creativity priceless against the backdrop of mass-produced, commercial standards.
I must acknowledge there are pieces of technology, tools, and toys that spark new challenges and inspire unexplored story lines for imaginative play. These items I have begun to identify more clearly as items to anticipate, stretching out the wish to encompass the larger concept of earning; instant gratification replaced with an investment of effort that lends accomplishment to attainment. Sometimes it is better to want than to receive.
Wishing something bigger for my children than singular moments of temporary joy I am embracing the beauty of a dream. I am celebrating effort as empowering and nurturing independent definitions of happiness, my own joy unfolding as my children discover the lessons behind my efforts.
scribblechic 