Give Nicely
In the last week, I have been around, looking for interesting ideas for wedding souvenirs for my now famous Purple September! I had been looking to depart from the souvenir vogue; Splashes, hand creams, towels etc etc. My search led me into the crystals department of Max Mart A&C and that is where I found my inspiration for this piece. As its wedding season, my internal programming is attracted to things, people, signs about weddings.
So I chanced on two ladies, also in the crystals aisle, clearly shopping for a gift for a common friends wedding. What got my attention? The more petite of the two ladies picked up a beautiful platter and asked how about this? To be honest I nearly said YES, because I'd have loved to receive that. The other said, it was the same gift they had given another of their friends but why not, the new bride was not better than anybody so there was no problem giving her same, was her point.
Petite Lady says, come to think of it, the bride might even under-utilize the piece, she advised that they give it to her anyway, after all even if she served her guest with low end stuff, it will be low end stuff on a nice platter.
I am sure you are wondering why I bothered to listen or even to write about this? If you have ever been married, you'd appreciate that receiving wedding gifts can be an emotionally challenging experience. I applaud the two ladies for bothering to give something nice. I hastened to question though, why the need to berate their friend in the aisle of Max Mart? For crying out loud the bride could have been standing on the other side of those shelves and heard everything.
Sometimes, we give up the blessing in giving, by the way we give. We give above our means to keep up appearances, we give stuff that is clearly useless, we complain so much about our gifts and give them joylessly. Trust me, in events like these, you are better off giving nothing. If there is any truth to the allusions of thoughts mattering more than the object, then my two ladies were as good as giving recycled waist paper. Their thoughts, utterances, fuel and time were completely devalued by the comments.
My lessons from the crystal aisle? It is great to GIVE NICE things but its more important to GIVE NICELY!
ALL MY LOVE
YSO
So I chanced on two ladies, also in the crystals aisle, clearly shopping for a gift for a common friends wedding. What got my attention? The more petite of the two ladies picked up a beautiful platter and asked how about this? To be honest I nearly said YES, because I'd have loved to receive that. The other said, it was the same gift they had given another of their friends but why not, the new bride was not better than anybody so there was no problem giving her same, was her point.
Petite Lady says, come to think of it, the bride might even under-utilize the piece, she advised that they give it to her anyway, after all even if she served her guest with low end stuff, it will be low end stuff on a nice platter.
I am sure you are wondering why I bothered to listen or even to write about this? If you have ever been married, you'd appreciate that receiving wedding gifts can be an emotionally challenging experience. I applaud the two ladies for bothering to give something nice. I hastened to question though, why the need to berate their friend in the aisle of Max Mart? For crying out loud the bride could have been standing on the other side of those shelves and heard everything.
Sometimes, we give up the blessing in giving, by the way we give. We give above our means to keep up appearances, we give stuff that is clearly useless, we complain so much about our gifts and give them joylessly. Trust me, in events like these, you are better off giving nothing. If there is any truth to the allusions of thoughts mattering more than the object, then my two ladies were as good as giving recycled waist paper. Their thoughts, utterances, fuel and time were completely devalued by the comments.
My lessons from the crystal aisle? It is great to GIVE NICE things but its more important to GIVE NICELY!
ALL MY LOVE
YSO
OMG!!!
ReplyDeleteYSO, next time you eavesdrop, will you keep it to yourself. Feeling kind of guilty right now as i have also participated in like conversations.
Well, truth told aptly and without fear or favour.
Keep it coming, i love these stuff