The person I got is called 'my draw' and after answering questions I posed to her, I learned enough to start making her gift. With only a short month to create something and get it shipped by the July 1 deadline, my guess is that the gifts will be small. My draw sends to someone else, and another person who got my name as her draw will send to me.
Risky, isn't it? Putting childhood fantasies of receiving a gift made just for you into the hands of a stranger! As the pre-schoolers say, "you git whatchu git, and you don't throw a fit!"
If all goes the way it is supposed to happen, I will receive a homemade gift from my secret elfster after the first of July!
We all have an important part to play in the circle of life as well as in the circles of our life. We struggle to believe in the stories we heard as children about fairness and honor, and to believe in the heroes and heroines we discovered who expressed our deepest values. Reality can be that hard-fought struggle that gets played out every time we take a risk.
We learn. We learn to trust ourselves to make our own way, to even buy our own gifts. Yet we allow others to find treasures we appreciate around us, and cannot even see within. We wait for approval and validation, forgetting to look in the mirror and simply claim it. There is no guarantee in free will, and free will is my obsession. I want free will for myself and hope I honor it in others even with all the risks.
All I have is this moment. All I ever need to be is who I am right here and now. If someone sees me and hears me, and wants to share their true self, then this is what risking is all about!
