Receiving “Thank you” with Grace

How do you handle your wrapped gifts? Do you tear into them with gleeful eagerness, or do you savor them, carefully peeling open the creased paper?

Tim Milburn has a terrific post on Joyful Jubilant Learning about how we receive, so perfectly timed for our ho‘ohana this month on mahalo, the value of thankfulness. Tim writes “It is Better to Give AND Receive.”

What I’m discovering, especially during this time of year, is how you open a gift isn’t nearly as important as how you receive a gift.

I know that this is the season of giving, but at some point along the way, someone will give something to us. At some point, we will receive — and how we receive is an opportunity to give in return.

Gratitude can be a tricky thing. Sometimes we don’t want to be on the receiving end of things. We like to be givers. But we forget that the joy of giving is often super-sized by the expressions of gratitude from those whom we give to. We love to see people receive our gifts with a sense of humble appreciation, like they were never expecting anything like this.

The words “thank you” are a gift in themselves too. However have you noticed how it is one of the hardest things we do, managing to simply and sincerely say, “You’re welcome” and leave it at that?

Why is it that instead, we tend to answer, “Oh, that’s okay” or, “It was no big deal,” or “Please, don’t mention it” and ruin the spirit of giving and receiving with our carelessly blurted out retorts?   That someone gave us something worth our appreciation is way more than just “okay.” It is indeed a very “big deal,” and it is absolutely worth mentioning!

Let’s practice, for I have a lot of reasons to say “thank you” to you.

Ready to receive?

Thank you for visiting Talking Story, and for reading what I have to say. I truly do appreciate that you do.