I had a wonderful gift today from a friend who happens to also be in my next step partnership. It actually was a gift, but it wasn’t so much the present that was the true gift but what it represented.

Let me explain. This morning at second service one of my girlfriends tracked me down to hand me a lovely gift bag. It was a little heavy for the size of bag and I didn’t even have to take out the contents before a huge smile crossed my face. Inside was a container of Chai concentrate. Not only was it Chai, but it was (in my estimation) the best Chai on the market… and it was decaf!

Chai is my comfort drink and one of my true indulgences. But what really blew me away about this gift is how it so beautifully demonstrated that my friend “gets” me. She has invested enough in me to want to know what makes me happy and what I truly enjoy (and that me on caffine would not be a good idea.)

Now that’s an amazing gift. To “know and be known”. In spite of the fact that vulnerability is a huge hurdle for everyone to cross in any relationship, the rewards of truly being “known” are enormous and well worth the investment.

It made me wonder,
am I showing the people that I care about the same?
Do they know that I “get” them?
What can I do to show them that?
And who do I need to invest in who needs to be “known”?

What about you? How do you answer the above questions?

So, to my friend, thank you! Thank you for the gift but even more for “getting” me.

~ Deana Kistner

This entry was posted on Monday, September 3rd, 2007 at 2:00 am and is filed under Week 3: Ring of Fire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.