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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Gifting

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In our life there is a single color, as on an artist`s palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love. ~ Marc Chagall


Typical material things don't really do it for me. I don't know why, it is just that way. I've never been one for gifts of flowers, jewelry, trinkets, stuff like that. I could have easily done without an engagement ring. (The hubby wished he had known THAT...) I didn't even want a wedding. Just not my thing. (We had one, a small one, but it was as close to our way as possible with that sort of show.

What does that do for the whole gift giving thing that happens on days designed for such sport? Well, we usually either skip it, or say "this is what I am getting for 'insert whatever obligatory gifting day here'", then buy it. It's about the kids anyway, that is our fun. This works great. We love it. We aren't people who need much for happiness. And we are cheap. At least we try to be. Well, I try to be.

Well, today my husband brought home the pencils in the above picture. I know it seems silly maybe, that they took me to that place where engagement rings, and long stem roses are supposed to take you. I mean, I could have just bought myself the pencils if I wanted them so much, right? (Well, technically no - because of the me being cheap thing remember?) But aside from that - what is the big deal? *** cue music for my 'walking to and from school uphill both ways story'.

When I was in college I had my first taste of what poor is. Like if I had apples, peanut butter and crackers I could eat for a week kind of poor. I worked long hours and took hard classes and had the sort of early adulthood life that sometimes wore me down. They sold art supplies in the student book store at a discounted price and the display of these pencils would just assault me with lust. Seriously, it was that bad. So every once in awhile I would buy one. This practice continued over the years and I even worked in an art gallery for awhile that sold them. Again, a pencil would be my special treat for myself. I used them a lot. They were beautiful and durable. Fluid, strong, blending well and inspiring happiness. I used them to decorate letters back when email was a novelty. (It was there, but who actually had their own computer and internet access?)

You'd think I would have had a lot of pencils by now, huh? Well I counted today and I had 32. Not that many for the joy they have brought me for over a decade. Today as I was comparing the colors between the ones I had and the new ones I discovered only a few common pencils, for a total of 80 unique colors. That is quite a lot of happiness. I have been little kid giddy all day over it. We don't do gifts often. But he sure gets it right when it happens.

1 comment:

Lindy said...

I have to say the gift of pencils is by far a better gift than flowers or jewelry... he KNOWS you... sees you.... hears you... ANYONE can bring a girl flowers, but it takes understanding of the heart to gift someone something they would truly love.
...scatter joy...
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