“Thank You”

When I think of gift giving I picture myself as the giver and another person as the recipient. When the situation is reversed and I am accepting a gift it used to frequently be somewhere between uncomfortable and difficult. It’s not that I didn’t appreciate another’s gesture of kindness and caring. Quite the contrary. I was at a loss to say what sufficiently communicated the gratitude I felt. In my recovery and growth I have come to know such feelings originate from a sense of being “less than” that comes from being under loved and appreciated as a child. No longer do I say “you shouldn’t have”, play down my deservedness or feel so strongly I am unworthy. Instead I respond by saying “thank you” expressed with warmth and gratefulness and have discovered that is all a giver hopes for.

There is a wonderful mythical law of nature
that the three things we crave most in life,
happiness, freedom, and peace of mind,
are always attained by giving them to someone else.
Peyton Conway March