This is the time for thinking about Christmas gifts, and if you’re honest – and I have to admit to this – sometimes those thoughts are more focused on the special ones you hope to receive rather than what you’ll give to others. I vividly remember how much, when I was ten, I wanted both a wristwatch and a bicycle and how surprised I was at the extravagance of receiving both presents. This year, though, I’m keenly mindful that I’ve already received the gifts I really needed. The last four months they have arrived wrapped in heart bows and left under my tree of life. I was unaware my spirit craved each one until it appeared, and I felt myself relax inside, soothed.
I hope that you, too, have been graced by these or similar gifts, the first of which was KINDNESS. Perhaps you remember that I climbed Kilimanjaro in August, although Covid required me to descend before reaching the summit. Through all those incidents that were part of that adventure, I experienced incredible kindnesses, which are detailed in an earlier blog.
During more recent experiences also associated with Kilimanjaro, I have been showered with kindness. About a month after returning home I developed long Covid, and since then I’ve dealt with debilitating fatigue and muscle weakness to a degree I could never have imagined. Last week I traveled to Los Angeles to attend the memorial service for my nephew Brian Craig, and I required a wheelchair to navigate the long airport corridors. It was my first experience needing a wheelchair, and it was surprisingly unsettling not to be my independent, quick self. One of my brothers traveled with me, and he was a prince in helping me. Airport wheelchair assistants and other employees, plus other travelers, joined him in being consistently kind and accommodating. My brother continued his support during the whole trip in such a way that others weren’t aware of my mobility issues, which was very important to me lest I divert any attention from the celebration of life for our loved one.
COMFORT is another gift of this season of grief during my nephew’s lengthy illness and death, as well as the much-less important grief I’ve felt at failing to reach the goal of summitting Kilimanjaro. The local church that Brian served, along with other congregations across the globe, brought comfort to his family through unwavering acts of service. Personally, numerous people have reached out in comforting words and connections which have soothed my spirit about the losses of the season. When I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing while I got my hair cut shortly before Brian died, my stylist stopped, rummaged at her station, and pressed four little business-size cards into my hand with the suggestion to look at them when I got home. Each one contained a beautifully presented scripture verse that was exactly right for that and many other moments.
During the days of gathering for the memorial service and other related events, our family spent wonderful time together, laughing as much as crying, comforting each other as much as receiving comfort ourselves. During these poignant days the many acts of kindness and comfort have settled on and around me like beautiful snowflakes of compassion – visitations from my personal snow angels.
Thirdly, ENCOURAGEMENT has sustained me. In the debilitation of long Covid, medical professionals, colleagues, family, and friends have encouraged me with get-well messages and promises that this, too, will pass. God has graced me with enough baby steps of progress to keep me hopeful (most days) to ease my significant impatience with this unexpected impairment. Slowly and gratefully, I am steadily improving.
Likewise, it was so very encouraging to my extended family to hear of the influence of our loved one’s life. In ways both small and large, Brian Craig had a profound impact on those around him and on thousands more who knew him only through his songs. Yes, part of Brian’s legacy is his music, yet so much of it was his personhood – the simple, less visible ways he loved and encouraged others.
As I reflect on these simple, yet precious, gifts, I’m motivated to offer them intentionally to others during this season and beyond. I’ve realized anew that many people are deeply struggling with unseen challenges. I’ve felt the impact of simple acts of humanity that make an outsized difference, and I better want to share that good news.
You don’t have to be a Santa Claus or well-known musician to better your corner of the world. You, too, can have an untold impact through simple gifts. I hope that each person who receives your tangible Christmas present also is gifted with an endowment of you – of your kindness, your comfort, your encouragement, your personalized emotional and spiritual gifts.
These gifts require no store or website visit or wrapping beyond the heart strings, the specifically tailored red threads of Christmas.
Marnie C. Ferree
Founder, Bethesda Workshops
