Day 29 ❦ Value devoid of judgement provides many giving opportunities.

Day 29

The Gift: A trivet holder

After influencing world peace yesterday, any gift I give today will seem mundane. And so in an effort to take the value judgement out of the giving, perhaps an ordinary day of giving is just what I need. Today’s simple gift is a cute palm decorated trivet holder that I purchased many weeks ago because I liked the way it looked, but never found a suitable purpose for. This item has been sitting in the stacks of stuff in my office waiting to be processed, dispatched, completed or thrown away.

Looking around my office trying to decide what to give today - the trivet presented itself not only as a gift but with a recipient attached to it.  It was very odd to look at the trivet holder purchased so many weeks ago that had my name on it - suddenly change to a gift that had someone else’s name on it - in fact, so obviously with someone else’s name on it. Usually if I looked at a recent purchase which no longer had my name on it - I would have simply returned it. I am the queen of returns and really get satisfaction out of returning something that I am willing to admit was just an impulse purchase with little lasting value. This is a new phenomenon, however.

Several years ago, I would have simply packaged up an impulse purchase in a box and then sold it later at a yard sale for one-hundredth the original purchase price. It always made me feel kind of bad to do that, but I told myself that I was embarrassed to return something. In fact, returning something was like admitting I had done something wrong, I had made a bad decision - so once I learned to take the value judgement off of the “wrong” of returning items - I began to revel in the concept that not only was it okay to change my mind, but I could also get my money back when I did change my mind. Well, I was probably in the phase of deciding to return this cute trivet holder when I looked at it with new eyes and realized that it would be a perfect giving opportunity for my oldest daughter, who had also though it to be very cute. Viola, giving complete. She appreciated the gift and in her appreciation erased any value judgement that I may have had held.

❦ Value devoid of judgement provides many giving opportunities.