Gifts can be awkward things. To give a gift requires grace and generosity of spirit, which can be hard to come by at times. To receive a gift can mean to open oneself to vulnerability and need. The nature of a gift can be daunting, too: a tangible gift may be the wrong shape, or size, or color and an intangible gift may be missed because of its subtlety. Or misinterpreted.
Then there are those gifts which I never knew existed, that were mysteries to me. A gift of mystery can be found in unlikely experiences. Sometimes I find it when I learn something new from a book I’m reading about trees. Sometimes I find it when I see light through stained glass windows. One of my best experiences was when I finally understood the mystery of how the automobile engine worked, with its moving pistons, timing belt, crankshaft. All those people adding all the parts they had perfected to make the whole.
To be given a gift of Mystery is to reconnect to Awe, to see the wheel of the Universe and begin to grasp its interconnectedness. Pass it on.
~Karen Smith
This is so simple and beautifully written. Just what I needed to start my week. Thank you for sharing this bit of yourself.
I love your idea that simple gifts in life are like the unfolding of mysteries in the natural or technological world. I still have many mysteries to unfold, but am awed when I can do so.