Day 29 of 29 Gifts!

Thursday 27 May. As they say in Toastmasters meetings, this completes my assignment! My 29th of 29 days, on each of which I consciously gave a gift of some sort. Loved the journey. On my last day the gift was an educational speech to a Toastmasters 'Speechcraft' gathering (it was at Toastmasters I heard about 29 Gifts). And I also created a 'Last Day Bonus' - I acknowledged and thanked five people in my life namely my colleague Ivan, my colleague/ coaching buddy Kristen, the two Toastmasters stalwarts David and Margrit Fisher, and my beloved partner and wife Judy. Good way to finish. And I don't think I'm finished with giving gifts. An extraordinary psychological/ spiritual journey!

Days 26, 27 and 28 of 29 Gifts

Mon Tue, Wed 24, 25, 26 May... On Monday I called and offered to my long-time friend Maggie the gift of 29 Gifts! I sent her the link to how it started, and will email her my whole blog, when completed. (Which is tomorrow!) My gift on Tuesday was to offer to another good friend, with a fair bit of uncertainty, the information about how I've reduced my weight by 12kg - how I did it and the little speech I wrote about it. Uncertainty because it might seem intrusive to tell someone how to lose weight. He received the offer with grace and gratitude! (I've had so much unexpected value from the losing weight, it's good to offer it to others.) And today, Wednesday, I offered again the gift of 29 Gifts to a person I'm coaching - she was very interested in it, said it fits her approach to life - and am also sending her the Kahlil Gibran piece about 'Children'. Her two are about to finish school, a turning point. It's hard to believe that tomorrow is Day 29 of 29 Days!! What next?

Days 23, 24 and 25 of 29 Gifts

Fri, Sat, Sun 21, 22, 23 May. Quick, remember... what were the gifts? How quickly we forget what we did / offered / received. OK, Friday my gift was to the Sunrise Childrens Home in Nepal - six of us donate each year to maintain an orphan lad. We should have paid in January - well, now we have. Saturday, my gift was dinner for my sister and brother-in-law, aunt and cousin at our house at Mitchells Island, near Taree. The real gift was to US in that my daughter Amy joined Judy and me (confession: she cooked more than I did). Sunday, my gift was two poems and two speeches I gave Amy to read - about family and family-related things. For me on the weekend I got way more than I gave!!

Day 22 of 29 Gifts

Thur 20 May - Gee, only a week away from 29 Days!! Today, being not hugely original (poems were the gift of the week), I gave two more poems to Peter Wallman at the final day of the (brilliant) Passion Mapping Facilitators Training - one was a wonderful intense poem by Seamus Heaney about transformation at the moment of death, and the other from Yeats's 'Vacillation', the lines beginning 'Get all the gold and silver that you can...' And I read the group Rule No 6 from the great Art of Possibility (Ben and Rosamund Zander). And hey, I set up my first Passion Map to facilitate - with Kristen. That WILL be a gift.

Days 20 and 21 of 29 Gifts

Tues 18 and Wed 19 May. Yesterday I printed out three poems I love, by Yeats, Tagore and Derek Walcott, to take to the Passion Mapping facilitator training and give to Peter Wallman - poems that celebrate the miracle of life. And that's what passion mapping is uncovering. The four-day training is a great experience (in so many ways a gift to me!). Today I brought home to Judy (i) some comfort food - chocolate and liquorice - as she needs a bit of comfort in her tough job right now, and (ii) a promise of mentoring/ coaching/ passion map support from Roger West. He agreed to be a foundation member of the Friends of GECA group.

Day 19 of 29 Gifts

This is Monday 17 May. Actually every day is a gift, isn't it? My gift today was one of those 'Is this really a gift' gifts? That is, I would have done it anyway. I picked up a bunch of computers (10 of them actually) for my colleague Steve, to save him a trip into town, taking them to a meeting we had in Parramatta. Yes, it was just a normal shared business errand. But I'll call it a gift - why? Perhaps just because we give so many gifts to each other, it is worth sometimes noticing. Steve rarely asks for favours, and is always gracious around asking and receiving.

Days 16, 17 & 18 of 29 Gifts

Meaning Fri, Sat & Sun, 14, 15 & 16 May. On Friday I bought Judy a $2.50 single rose as I met her at the station. It seemed to me a small, easy gesture - but she was really touched by it. We don't know what our gifts mean to people. On Saturday, Judy and I gave Jess the gift of helping him move into his first share-house (a lovely place in St Leonards). It was very smooth, and he appreciated it. Also I gave Eve the gift of some flowers, another 'easy gesture'. But she said she loves the type of flower (ornamental capsicums). Same lesson. Today, Judy and I bought and took Jess a gift for his room - a little cactus (tough to withstand systematic neglect by a young single man...). He appreciated that too. The universe gave US a gift, in that we found a unit to rent for the next three months!! A not so small miracle, accomplished with NO effort...

Days 12, 13, 14, 15 of 29 Gifts!

Today's Thursday 13 May. Wow, I got lost this week in travel and a workshop interstate - BUT the giving kept happening.
Day 12 - Monday 10 May: I flew to Melbourne and for the first time thought, I could give a few dollars to UNICEF in the envelope Qantas always put in their headsets! So I did. Small and no feedback of course from the bin I put it in - but it reminded me of a gruff friend of mine years ago, who always gave to beggars, and said: 'It's easy for me - they do it tough.' And I was a bit ashamed of my judgmental attitude and not giving. Mostly since then I have given to beggars.
Day 13 - Tuesday 11 May: my gift, in the leadership workshop I was facilitating with my friend and colleague Steve was to focus on giving positive feedback, lots of it, to the participants. And yes, we always do that. But also, it was good to remember what a gift it is.
Day 14 - Wednesday 12 May: more positive feedback to the workshop participants (who were fantastic, willing, generous, responsive). Also I put another amount in the UNICEF envelope on the flight back, and thought: I could do this every time I fly.
Day 15 - Thursday 13 May: what a gift today! I asked my friend and coaching colleague Kristen, after a long and enthusiastic conversation about a webinar on coaching she is delivering, what gift could I give her today. She said, I'd already given it to her in the willing and positive ear I'd offered her in our conversation! And I promised to give more when I actually participate in the seminar tonight. Giving is such a mutual thing...

Day 11 of 29 gifts

Sunday 9 May. Today was an easy day for giving: Mother's Day. I gave the gift of a lovely Mother's Day to Judy, with help from our son Jess. I gave her a card that acknowledged her, in a wide range of ways, as winner of the 'Best Woman in a Leading Role' award - well deserved it is too. We crossed the Harbour by train and ferry, in stunningly beautiful weather (ordered for the occasion), and spent a bit of time with Jess at the Museum of Contemporary Art. A beautiful day...

Days 9 and 10 of 29 Gifts

Meaning Fri and Sat 7 and 8 May. Yesterday I gave a book - Marcus Buckingham's The One Thing You Need to Know - to my colleague Ann in the morning before we began co-facilitating a strategic planning workshop. She was delighted. It was a way of thanking her for bringing me into the job. (Today the client rated our work "12 and a half out of 10" - highest client rating I've ever had!) And today I gave my esteemed colleague Ivan (who also worked on the program) and his wife Pip a copy of Eat Pray Love. Also received with some delight, as they prepared to drive back to Canberra this Saturday afternoon. A well deserved thank-you for Ivan for his extraordinary work and support of our facilitation.

Days 7 and 8 of 29 gifts

Namely Wed & Thur 5 and 6 May. Wow, don't days whistle by? My gift yesterday was (thinks quickly) an hour spent coaching and aiming to support and inspire a young man to build team and leadership in his not-for-profit, which supports poor kids in the Philippines. What an inspiration HE is! My gifts today, so far, are (i) to send my friend Aidan my 'skinny speech' (about how I lost 12kg and how well it's made me) and (ii) to return a library book to Sydney College of the Arts for Kerry, who is overseas. Wow, what a gift to me to wander round the SCA for half an hour and see some of its superb architecture and exhibitions.

Day 6 of 29 Gifts

Today is Tuesday 4 May. Today's gifts were: (1) lending my friend and colleague Mark readings from Tolle's A New Earth, while we worked together leading a workshop (his wife Di has terminal cancer); (2) making a speech at Toastmasters called 'The Old Man', a tribute to and gift for my Dad, who died eight years ago; and (3) a  chocolate bar which I won for the speech and gave to the parking attendant at the club (he appreciated it!). I notice the giving seems to multiply, by itself.
PS. To me and my friends: I don't seem to have figured out how to successfully share this blog and enable comments. Eve is hanging in there, though - thanks!

Days 4 and 5 of 29 Gifts

Meaning, Sunday 2 and Monday 3 May. The gift-giving happened, just the blog was momentarily neglected. Yesterday the gift I consciously gave was to say yes to all the family-matters requests made by Judy and not be irritated about 'needing to do my work'. Today the gift I gave was a book, 'Your Brain at Work', to a coachee to whom I had lent a copy: it is now hers. (That word 'consciously': it's actually noticing our giving that somehow enriches it.)

Day 3 of 29 Gifts

Saturday 1 May... (my blog's clock seems a little trans-Pacific and may say yesterday - oops, no it didn't) My gift today was to my daughter Amy, her fiance Oran and my son Jess, who came to lunch - thoughtfully and beautifully prepared by Judy. The gift was to read them a couple of pages of the lucid wisdom of Eckhart Tolle, from the lovely gift in turn given to me by Eve and Daniel - a book of selections from Tolle's New Earth. Don't gifts seem to have a circular way of travelling? And now Amy and Oran, who are doctors, will pass on something of Eckhart's peace, clarity, love and acceptance of life to their patients and colleagues. And perhaps Jess will pass it on to his customers at American Express. And the world will be a better place (although of course it already is).