First things first, Merry Christmas Happy Holidays and Happy New Years!  At this point in the year gifts are the rage. So, I wanted to spend a second and take look at How You Give and How You Get Gifts is SO Important whether they’re Christmas or other Holiday and Life gifts.   An important note to remember… the things that you’ll remember for years might be the gift itself, but more than likely it’ll be the look in their eye, the preparation put into the gift or the perfect imperfection of the gift and/or the circumstances around it.  So here goes, some of my favorite Christmas Gifts…  Several years ago, I was a grown man making a decent living when my dad handed me an envelope as we opened Christmas gifts. I can still hear his voice as he looked at my mom and said “I want to see his face when he opens this one.” I slowly opened the envelope and pulled out a piece of folded paper. As I unfolded it I saw a crisp, new $50 bill! I saw the note which simply said “I’m proud of you. I love you. Dad”  I looked up and saw this Old School, gruff, wonderful man, shifting uneasily in his chair as he sniffed and wiped away his tears. I had seen and used $50 and $100 bills before. It wasn’t the amount. It was that this gift meant something to him, he didn’t have much and he was giving me much, much more that just $50! I’m just glad I understood it then and everyday since then too.     That Was A Great Gift! I was walking one day with my son who was a grown man at the time. It had rained much of the day and had just stopped. It was one of those perfect times, still a bit cloudy and cool from the rain and the smell was so clean and perfect. We had only walked for a short distance when I noticed him lagging behind. When I turn around, there he was bending down picking up a worm that had been washed up onto the sidewalk instead of the grass. He gently bent over and moved the worm into his hand, walked over to the grass and gently put it down. As his hands came together to get rid of any excess mud, he look up at me and just smiled. Didn’t say a word, just smiled. We continued our walk and talk that day but we stopped often. Both of us would bend over and gently moved a worm from the concrete to the safety of the grass. And then we would just smile.     That Was A Great Gift! I remember the eyes of a woman who, after a long, dangerous and painful few days, told me the words of the most beautiful, life altering ancient Lakota wisdom. The moment was born out of a genuine to will to make life better. It did. […]