Story Library

Gifts From The Heart

It was the early 1800s and a young couple newly married had lots of love, but very little money. As they face their first Christmas together, he strokes her beautiful, waist length auburn hair and wonders how he can possibly afford a Christmas gift for her that is worthy of all the happiness she has brought him.

As she watches him dress for work, opening his pocket watch to check the time, she is filled with love and wants desperately to show it by getting him a gift for Christmas that he will treasure.

On Christmas eve, he arrives home and she is still hurrying about preparing a special dinner, a scarf covering her head and an apron protecting her dress.

He pulls her to the couch and hands her the gift he chose for her – a beautiful sterling silver hair ornament that he envisioned holding her lovely hair high on her head. She presents her gift to him – a gold watch fob for the pocket watch that he treasures so.

He sheepishly admits he no longer has the watch. He sold it to buy her hair clip. She slowly removes the scarf from her head, revealing short cropped hair. She cut and sold her flowing locks to buy the watch fob.

The physical gifts were now useless to each of them. But the love with which they were acquired will see them through, whatever lies ahead.

May your Christmas be merry and full of love.

[Based on the short story by O. Henry called “The Gift of the Magi.”]

Photo credit: Dusty Cline via Dollar Photo Club

[Show #466]

The Difference Love Makes

I’ve been trying to grab the feeling of being loved and in love. It’s something so ethereal as to defy description. It makes the very air I breathe sweeter, safer, more nourishing.

Look at it from a practical standpoint. If I did not love someone so much and he did not love me, I would still have my same body, my same mind. I would still have the same values to build on and the same education and age and looks.

But somehow, they are all BETTER because I love and am loved.

You know what amazes me the most? All I have to do to deserve all this love is to BE. To exist. To live one day after the other. Just by doing so, I seem to earn his love and devotion.

Am I being silly? Is this something unique to me?

Or—what a wonderful thought—are there hundreds…thousands…millions of people out there who are as loved as you are, and I am. Well, my goodness, I think that is the case! Millions of people are loved and in love. We all experience this wonderment of the soul.

I want to meet them all. I want to shake their hands and congratulate them and share their joy.

And if you are one of them, oh my, but we are the lucky ones.

[Show #381]

I Had To Sell My House

I had to sell my house! I loved that house. It’s on the river, with views of the mountains, in a wonderful community where people care about each other and help each other.

I lived there for more than a decade and had set down roots. But things changed, and it was time to live elsewhere.

I moved everything out and looked at the bare walls. They looked good and had fared well.

One year, I decided to turn the rest room into a stunning oasis. I built in lighted glass shelves to spotlight treasures that I could change every month or so. Wallpaper set the theme, enhanced by crown molding and pewter side lamps. I added a beautiful antique mirror. The floor was laid with marble tiles and a furniture quality vanity was installed, with granite top. It all blended beautifully. I so enjoyed the feeling of that small, lovely space.

Sliding doors to the deck were replaced with romantic French doors. Shelves were added for displaying my teapot collection. I could see myself in every nook and cranny of the house. I had made it my own. And now, it was passing into new hands. How would it be treated?

Would the next family know joy and happiness here? Would they replace my version of beauty with themes of their own? Of course they will. And I am so happy for them.

[Show #530]

Boys Know How Things Work

Boys seem to know how things work. I have noticed that all my life.

I don’t know how things work. Wish I did. But somehow my interests have never led me to find out.

The lights go on when I turned the switch. I don’t need to know how or why. The house sits up straight on its foundation. I can believe in that without knowing the physics behind it.

But boys are not satisfied with that. From an early age, they have to take it apart, see how it works and put it back together again. Sometimes they get good at it; sometimes not. I used to be amazed at how my husband knew how to fix a drain or wire a lamp. I am still amazed at how my son can operate all the lenses and filters and stuff on his professional cameras. They know how to change tires . . . how to put furniture together . . . how to make broken things work again.

I don’t remember seeing his father teach those things to his son, or his father teaching them to him. Yet somewhere along the way, the boys all learned. I’ll bet I could learn all those things, if I really tried. I once installed a door lock, just by following the pictures on the packaging.

But if I knew how to do those things, then they would expect me to do them. Well, that would not be smart. I will just let this tradition or illusion remain on the books. “Hey guys, look what needs fixing. Come to my rescue.”

[Show #479]

I Bought Gifts

Sometimes your gifts to children just don’t work. You enjoyed shopping for them, but it was clear they were not well received. Are you disappointed when they aren’t gracious in their response? Or do you just chalk it up to being out of touch with what young people want these days. See if you recognize yourself in these reflections.

Show #528

How Much You Were Loved! Reflections On A Mother’s Love

My daughter was expecting her firstborn. They were thrilled beyond words. I was fortunate to have time to spend with her during her pregnancy, when we could just think and marvel at the miracle happening to her.

As we sat on the swing one summer evening, I confided to her, “One of these days, you will be rocking your beautiful, perfect child, and suddenly, something will occur to you, about your own mother. It will finally sink in why your mother was strict and demanding and protective and all the things you didn’t want her to be. “You’ll realize, it was not because she was mean or out to ruin your life, as you may have thought at the time. It was all done out of the kind of love you now feel for your own child. Only then will you understand how much YOU were loved.”

A few months later, she called me, tears in her voice. “Mom,” she said, “Tonight it happened. I was rocking the baby and looking at his beautiful face and thinking how much I love him and I suddenly understood how much you loved me. Thank you, mom, thank you so much for loving me SO MUCH.”

Is it all worth it…what you go through to be a mother?

Oh yes, oh yes, indeed!

[Show #290]

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