The best gifts cannot be wrapped

January 27, 2006 / Uncategorized / 19 Comments

Today was my birthday and it was a really good one despite the dearth of wrapped presents. My friend J gave me a zoo/museum pass that will last for a year. Chalain & Chaliren took Howard and I out for dinner. (They probably didn’t intend it as a birthday event, but it was kind of them and I’m claiming it as a birthday gift.) Howard cooked yummy scones for a birthday lunch. The birthday cheesecake was supplied by Howard’s sister. There were also leftovers of an extremely rich chocolate cheescake I froze last fall. Online friends said very kind things about my writing. I always treasure evidence that my writing is appreciated.

The one wrapped gift I opened was a CD from my parents. It is a remastered recording of an old scratched record I loved as a child. (I babble about it here: http://sandratayler.livejournal.com/108782.html) The CD itself is wrapable, but the real gift is the memories attached to the music. I suspect that is true of most gifts that I recieve or give. The wrapped item is only a physical symbol for the love and appreciation that the giver feels.

Howard has been a little sad this year because we couldn’t afford for him to go buy a gift for my birthday. But you see, I don’t need him to. He shows me daily that he loves and appreciates me. I’d much rather save the money and use it to buy more time for Howard and I to make cartooning profitable. Of all possible birthday gifts, that one would be best. It would work great for Howard’s birthday next month too.

It’s been a good birthday. Now I’m officially 33 and it’s a good place to be.

19 thoughts on “The best gifts cannot be wrapped”

  5. darthparadox

    Lewis Carroll, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Sandra Tayler.

    You’re in good company.

    You may have seen the “meme” going around for Lewis Carroll’s birthday, also called “Rabbit Hole Day”, which several LJers have decided to celebrate by writing short pieces of surrealist fiction. I know it’s difficult to find the time to do such things, but if you feel the writing bug bite, today’s a good day for it. 😀

    (Such a meme may exist for Mozart’s birthday too, but I suspect people find short surrealist fiction a lot easier to write than operas, or even sonatas…)

    Happy birthday!

  8. Sandra Tayler

    I already wrote it. It was the post just prior to this one. It probably doesn’t quite fit with other LJ folk’s version of Rabbit Hole Day, but it fits me and my journal.

  9. darthparadox

    …So you did! I don’t know how I missed that go by.

    It’s a gorgeous bit of writing. Children never cease to amaze me in their abilities to create and fluorish in their own realities so well that they can draw others into them, and you captured the moment beautifully.

    And I think it really does fit with Carroll’s writing. After all, at least in Alice in Wonderland, there was always the ambiguity of whether what she was experiencing was reality or fantasy, or a blend of both. And I think it was the latter, really, just like Gleek dancing with the faeries and horses – it was a fantasy, perhaps, but that didn’t make it any less real.

  10. level_head

    A happy birthday to you, and many more in the future. It does seem that you are in a good place, surrounded by people that love you and need your love in return. This a well-earned bit of good fortune that too many people in the world live without, even though some of them have more cash to throw around. You demonstrate what is important.

    Best wishes.

    And I like that album!

    ===|==============/ Level Head

  12. haesslich

    Congratulations on the birthday, and many happy returns to you. 😀 As you’ve already noted, it’s not the actual GIFT which is the good part of the birthday, so much as the memories or sentiments associated with it – a gift given sincerely and with feeling is worth a lot more, in my opinion, than an expensive item given out of a sense of duty or detached obligation.

    Besides, I’d say a zoo/museum pass is probably a lot more usable than an item you’ll use once or twice and put aside… but that’s just me. Again, congratulations. 😀

  13. larksilver

    (Such a meme may exist for Mozart’s birthday too, but I suspect people find short surrealist fiction a lot easier to write than operas, or even sonatas…)

    Not I… I do composition off the top of my head with a great deal more facility than surreal.. anything. I’m just too darn earthy to be good at the rabbit hole. I’m too much Alice, not enough Mad Hatter, I suppose.

  16. wren08

    I noticed that.. it was really good!

    Happy Birthday, belatedly. Yesterday is my oldest daughter’s birthday as well and she took such a surrealistic trip (not drug assisted!) that I was begining to be scared. Your birthday was a much happier one than we had here (for various reasons)and I am very glad of that!

  17. Sandra Tayler

    You’ve heard The Poetry Album before? May I ask where? Because my parents acquired it from a local group when they were in college. It was never widely distributed.

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