Beautiful Gifts Can Often Come in Sorrowful Wrapping - Chris Martin I am quite sure that Macy’s and Nordstrom’s department stores would not hire me in their gift-wrapping departments. I take a lot of time to buy what I think will be desirable gifts for others, but I don’t seem to possess the skill, time, and focus to wrap them all up into a beautiful appealing present. Besides, I often find that many people, including me, hurry through the unwrapping part to get to the gifts inside. Perhaps it would be good if we could all learn to slow down a little to appreciate the wrapping around the gifts. In many ways, the people who come to receive services at Crestwood arrive with sorrowful wrappings around their hearts and spirits. Inside each of them are beautiful gifts that come inside all that sorrow. Their invaluable gifts have come with a great price. The poet Robert Browning Hamilton said it best when he wrote: I walked a mile with pleasure; She chatted all the way; But left me none the wiser For all she had to say. I walked a mile with Sorrow; And ne’er a word said she; But oh. The things I learned from her When Sorrow walked with me. Opening Gifts: Now when my grandson Harvey was three years-old, he liked to open everyone’s presents. We adults were always okay with that, but his five-year-old sister, Gianna, was not going to have it! She wanted to open her own gifts. I think it’s the same with the people we serve. It’s important we don’t compel people to pull back their sorrow so they can acknowledge their gifts. Instead, gift unwrapping can best happen in the context of a recovery relationship when we’ve spent time with them heart to heart. And perhaps when the timing is right, we can share some gifts we got from our sorrow. Maybe then they might be in a better place to open and appreciate their own. Having said that, here are 12 gifts that can come from sorrow: 1. Patience 2. Graciousness 3. Humility 4. Empathy 5. Compassion 6. Appreciation of laughter 7. Appreciation for family and friends 8. Release of resentments and the small stuff 9. Reverence for the fragility and sacredness of life 10. Understanding that time matters 11. Gratitude 12. Resilience The author C.S. Lewis wrote, “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” And the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote, “New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” One other thing is for certain about gift giving and opening…. when people walk through sorrow, we are the gift when we stay in the present!
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1moChris, I came across this and am happy that you are still quoting CS Lewis, even at Crestwood. The last time that we had coffee in Singapore back in September of 2022, I think life has - from the drive out in the Sonoran Desert to see Taliesin West, our phone conversation while I was on the Williamsburg bridge looking back at Brooklyn, to the white marbled steps of Harvard Medical, these few years have been, eventful. The video you once played for me of Marsha Lineham, describing a life worth living, perhaps. Time may make us age, but the memories remain, including your book, which I still keep. Perhaps I hope one day the coffee may be in Sacremento. Take care my friend. Xun An