Gifts are given throughout the year and especially for holidays, retirements, farewells and special occasions like birthdays and impending births. We enjoy celebrating and even go to great lengths to purchase the newest gadgets and most memorable trinkets and oftentimes spare no expense when it comes to family and friends and tend to go into debt to purchase just the right gift.
In this NY Times article, a donor gave a 350 million dollar gift to Cornell University’s new high-tech graduate school. While most of us can only dream of giving a gift in that amount it is often the gifts that we do not give ourselves that are the most valuable.
Are you carrying a grudge against someone? Getting angry with someone is one thing but allowing lingering feelings to embitter you can actually be harmful to your health and carrying that weight around can wear you down. According to Fox News recently, “Regis Philbin Still Holding 18-Year-old Grudge Against Jerry Seinfeld.”
I cannot imagine holding a grudge for eighteen years! The weight of that burden must be eating away inside of Regis Philbin. The best gift that Regis could give to himself would be to let it go. Regis should forgive and forget, alas, I doubt that he ever will because he wrote, “I will never forget that silence, nor will I ever get over it…” Poor Regis should realize that the best gift that he could give to himself would be forgive.
Forgiveness is often the best gift that we can unwrap for ourselves when we open our hearts to forget past mistakes made by others. Most of the time, the person that we are embittered about doesn’t even know we are burdening ourselves with the anger and hurt.
Unwrap the gift of forgiveness and give yourself the gift of unburdening. The presence of a peaceful heart is the best present of them all.
Sources:
NY Times / Region, Cornell Alumnus Is Behind $350 Million Gift to Build Science School in City