The Beauty of Giving
As a young girl, buying mama a gift for mother’s day was a big problem. Reminiscing how I bought my first gift for her makes me smile. I remember so well how I panicked about looking for a perfect gift. I was scared that time, thinking that my savings was not enough to purchase something. Looking back though, I feel a little proud, considering that it was also my first time to go out alone.
Everything happened 8 years ago. With just P50 on my pocket, I was worried that I might not get what my mom preferred -anything yellow, pretty and simple. I got even more worried seeing the prices of gift ideas ranging from P65-P150. Everything felt impossible and I was about to lose hope, when something caught my attention. A green-black bracelet! I knew it was far from yellow, but something about this bracelet attracted me and made me want to buy it. It looked so cute to me and it only cost around P45. Suddenly I didn’t care if it’s not yellow; I liked how green it was and how appealing it was to me. So I bought it. How I thought it would match my mama’s complexion finalized my decision.
I was so happy then, so proud of myself that at last I bought something for my mama out of my own savings. It was way too cool for me that time, especially that I found saving so troublesome even until now.
Now, seeing Ma’am Joy’s FB post of a picture her daughter took for her, and reading what she thinks that “beauty is really not just something you see; it's something you give...” made me think of this past experience and how I was able to pick a gift. The bracelet was beautiful in my own eyes and therefore to me was worth giving. Beauty is something we give an object by the way we see it and then it is something we enhance by sharing it or giving it to others. Now the bracelet became not only beautiful to me, but certainly to my Mom’s eyes too. Carla thought the flower was beautiful, so she carefully took a picture of it which she thought her Momma would like, and her Momma did see how beautiful it all was - not just the picture but her act of giving it to her.
I did become proud of myself that I can spend money for someone so special to me. But seeing this picture from Ma’am Joy’s daughter made me realize that, it doesn’t matter how much you spend or how beautiful your gift will be. It’s the miracle of giving. Something you give becomes special just by the act of giving itself. When you give it from the bottom of your heart, when it symbolizes how you feel about the person and what she/he means to you, any gift becomes really special. Even if I gave my mama a handmade bracelet, now I realize she will still be so thankful, cause Mothers see not just the gift but the giver and how special the act and effort of giving means.