We cheat ourselves and the world when we tuck our gifts out of sight, so hold yours out with open hands and be willing to share them. Don’t wait forever on an open door when you might have the key to a few closed ones right in front of you. Share your dreams and talents and ideas with anyone who will listen. So the purpose of spewing all this rambling your way is this: don’t hide your gift. But what if that time is right? What if I’ve been allowing fear to bench my gifts and purposes when that perfect moment was just a little effort away? If we wait for one of life’s dramatic curtain calls instead of taking captive those unremarkable moments that make up our days, will we find ourselves waiting for an opportunity that never comes? I’m beginning to think so. Sometimes I’ll pick them up and consider the possibilities for a moment, but then I usually just toss it back on the shelf with the notion that I’ll think about it when the time is right. I have some dreams that have been sitting on a shelf for a while. Usually we’re putting that idea on the shelf to become dusty and forgotten. What does this waiting accomplish? When we fail to tap into something that we love or that has been gifted to us, we are rarely saving it for a rainy day. So often, we stifle a vision, we refrain from sharing a kind word with someone, or we hold off on pursuing something we desire because we’re unsure the time is right. Our talents, our desires, and our dreams. Not the tangible items like a pair of earrings or a fancy sofa or a block of imported cheese, but the gifts inside of us. I think (and hang with me for a minute, because this is going to be a stretch) that we do the same thing with our own personal gifts. Instead of preserving those things for the right time, I end up wasting them. Why do we ration the good things in our life? For so long, I’ve resisted the urge to appreciate and indulge in the gifts I have because the moment doesn’t feel worthy of them. Instead of relishing those treats or sharing them when I had the opportunity, I let them go to waste. Now they don’t fit or they’ve expired or they’re simply out of style. Always certain that there’s a special occasion worthy of them, I hold off from opening, using, or wearing those items, and before long they’ve been forgotten. I do the same thing with clothes and shoes and those expensive face masks and creams I buy at the store. It was well overdue and no longer good, and I remember being so disappointed that I let that treat go to waste. Finally, when we moved last December, I found the old bottle all dusty in the back of our cabinet. Over the next several months, I made Asian food more times than I could count but I never cracked open the bottle because it never felt special enough. In my mind, I’d save it for a special dinner when I made homemade sushi or some other type of Asian cuisine and I’d be the cute put-together wife that had just the right beverage for the occasion. When Brett and I first got married, I bought this expensive bottle of sake. It’s not that I want to be over-the-top or too planned out, I just like to save my best for the right moment. I have this really bad habit of saving things “for a special occasion.” I love a celebration more than the average bear, and it’s not unusual for me to find myself romanticizing an event with grandiose plans, elaborate treats, or just about anything else that qualifies as extra. Instead, I decided to go ahead and share it right away, because some things are just too good to keep to yourself, ya know? Yes, we’re finally into rhubarb season and strawberries are just around the corner, but these gooey strawberry rhubarb crumb bars were supposed to be on hold. Truth be told, I was going to save this recipe for a rainy day.
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