My holiday gift to you.

What a glorious time of year. A time to gather and celebrate with food and gifts. A time to ponder all the gifts you have been blessed with, no matter what form they come in, they are all around us waiting to be accepted. A gift is a thing given willingly to someone without payment... a present. One thing we often overlook however, is that if a gift is only if gift if, it is accepted. How often have we been presented with something and just not taken advantage of it; or not realized that what we were being presented with was in fact a gift; or kept something solely to ourselves without sharing it; I would dare to say that these are wasted gifts. I quite often equate receiving gifts to a glass (me) being filled with a beverage (the gift).Gifts fill the glass. Once full it cannot handle more unless first a bit is removed. You may consume as much as you can, but the next taste is never as rich as the first, as repeated tasting diminishes sensory acuity we drink more and more in hopes of that first rush. And too much imbibing will leave you, well….hurting.

So how does one make room in their glass without getting intoxicated…solution… share it.

One of the greatest gifts I have received is the chance to work at my alma mater, doing what I love and was trained to do. The gift of watching a young person discover themselves and begin the journey of their career is amazing, a gift I relish everyday. But before I opened this gift, there were a few tests along the way. One such test was a Chef's test to see if I was CIA material. A challenge I truly enjoyed. Well, mostly. Right up until the end it was a great day. My food was on point and I was in the zone. As I reached for the sauté pan holding my vegetables for the final dish it was painfully apparent to me that the handle of the pan had made its way under the side towel I was holding for such protection and since it was in fact ripping hot was now searing its way into my palm.

By the time the meal was presented and I was asked into the dining room for my critique, my hand was a throbbing mess. I pressed a paper towel wrapped ice cube into the stigma and made my way into the dining room. I was more than a little pissed off at myself.  And now, not only was I wounded, I had to stand in front of a table and hear a critique on what I thought went rather well, aside from the burn. As I contemplated all this, it hit me, the gift. Gift? How can anyone see this as a gift? Well that's just it, it's your perspective. Faced with this horrible pain, I chose to see it as a gift, and it was. As I wrestled with being able to do something so stupid and careless on such an important day, the gift kindly presented itself. Today wasn't only about me being a "great" Chef, it was about my abilities as a teacher, something I was overlooking in comfort of my zone.

So when asked, " What do you think?" I put away the ego of Chef and put on the humility of the teacher. Starting with the first spoon of soup to the last morsel of chicken, I critiqued my meal. One that I normally would have stood by and defended, I now outlined its flaws and remedies. And as I finished I felt a wave of satisfaction come over me (or maybe it was adrenaline from the throbbing wound) as I awaited the evaluators responses.

"Well, that's just what I would have said." Stated one of my evaluators. And in a few weeks time, I began my journey there as an instructor, and the gifts keep coming.

Gifts come in all forms, some less recognizable than others. But in order for them to be gifts they need to be accepted, recognized and taken in, and be appreciated. But if you really want to make the most of your gift, and have room for more in the process, you need to give some of it away. The more you give...the more room you have for more.

So look around and recolonize all the gifts in your life, and more importantly, share them with others.