The Greatest Gifts You’ve Given
What are the greatest gifts you have given the world?
I was asked this question in a sangha gathering (Buddhist meditation practice group) sometime last year. I don’t remember the general theme of that session’s teachings - maybe it was gratitude? Maybe it was a celebration of teachers? Not sure.
Whatever the general theme was, the question went deep, and I noticed that an answer didn’t just pop into my head. This would take a minute.
You may have answered questions about your individual gifts and talents in any number of conversations. When we’re trying to create a career path that suits us, or faced with any of life’s many transitions, knowing our strengths helps forge a clearer path to decisions.
We all want to make a contribution, to do some good, to bring some beauty, some love, into the world. Knowing what we’re good at, what comes easily, and what feels good to offer to the world is empowering because it helps us show up in the world as ourselves, with fewer masks.
This question felt different when I heard it. It wasn’t about my individual strengths or talents, but my actions. Something that I had done in the world that was good. Or at least that’s how I heard it.
The greatest gifts I have given the world…..
Images of family popped into my head when I heard the question, but it wasn’t until the image of myself came to center that I really had an answer. The self that showed up in my mind was myself in a moment of clarity, when I showed up without the weight of past traumas clouding judgement, words, actions. Parts of me have touched healing, and when those parts show up, there is such peace.
Yes, I thought, the greatest gifts I have given the world are moments of non-fear.
The moments I have heard news, or felt suffering in another person come at me, or moments when I have been confronted in an interaction that activates trauma responses in me but remained unafraid, those moments were true gifts because they created ripples of non-fear, within me, and out into the world.
A very long stream of interactions/situations that I have met with fear came instantly to mind, and the contrast between ripples of fear and ripples of non-fear was shockingly clear. I’m sure I’m not the only one who can recognize how many times I have brought fear (of shame, of embarrassment, of abandonment, of conflict, of loss, of death) into a new situation, a conflict, an illness, or an interaction with a loved, a colleague, a stranger.
Contemplating the question and feeling into the answer created a powerful shift in me because it it helped me to recognize new patterns that I’ve been creating and nourishing. Strengthening those patterns through practice, and easing the path to them through healing, is now a strong intention for me in the new year.
For you, the answer will be very different. I hope it is as illuminating for you as it has been for me. I invite you to take the time to contemplate, and bring the question into your practice:
What are the greatest gifts you have given the world?
