The Gift of Time

Today, I'm clearing the yard of leaves.  Why?  I love how they look covering the yard, but my husband does not.  So today, I'm cleaning them for him…it's a small gift of my time.  But as I worked on them, I started reflecting on those small gifts of time.  And I snapped this picture of the glider he gave me a couple years ago.  It's not a gift of time in the same way as clearing leaves…it's better.

You see, my grandfather had a glider like this at his farm.  I remember curling up on the seat and reading, or swinging on it with my brothers.  When I asked my husband for a glider like that, I was thinking about the reading more than my brothers.  But since its become a fixture in my side yard, I realize that what I love most about it is the time with my family.  I may start out sitting alone and reading, but soon someone's in the other seat.  I can't tell you how often one of the kids sees me there and comes to visit.  They share bits of their days as we swing to and fro.  My husband and friends occasionally join me on it as well and visit.

It turns out that when my husband gave me the glider as a gift, it was a better present than he imagined…because through that glider, he gave me the gift of time.  Time with him, time with friends, time with the kids.

This is a theme I've spent years writing about.  I was pretty blatant as I talked about it in my new release, Christmas in Cupid Falls.
"…as you get older you never find yourself wishing you had more time to work.  You find yourself wishing you had more time for the people in your life."

That's what my husband gave me with the glider…time for the people in my life.  So today, I'll go clear some leaves for him.  It's just a small way to tell him that he matters to me.  And maybe a small way to say thank you for the gift of time he inadvertently gave me!

Holly