The Gifts We Really Want

The Gifts We Really Want

"Be sensible of your wants, that you may be sensible of your treasures."  
  ___Thomas Traherne, Centuries


    At this of the year, when the commerciality of Christmas swamps sacred and seasonal considerations, we ask and are asked, 'What do you want this year?"  True wants are not easily satisfied by prettily wrapped parcels; they immensities of space within us that we often block up by needs and yearnings. To consider our real wants is often too frightening.
    Our wants are sharper than super large screen TVs with 3-D or video games with super special effects, jewelry that dazzles the eye
or beautiful clothing.  Our real wants eat holes in us: never resting, never loving, never greeting, never finding, never seeking, never ever being satisfied deep down.
    Those ravenous wants define our treasures so truly. They create a Christmas list that no department store could supply: time to stop and enjoy, in a space of quietness and contentment, all the things we were put on earth to do; space to give and receive love reciprocally; grace to seek and find our spiritual joy; freedom from the tyranny of others' expectations and judgments; acceptance of ourselves as we truly are. But we can discover our true treasures and how near we actually stand to them. When we really listen to ourselves say, "I haven't  time to...... I never get to ..... I'm sick of ......," we come within sight of our treasury - that wealth that goes on being unvisited year after miserable year.
    The miracle of self-permission and allowance, the willingness to receive, the gift of truth - these are the keys to unlock the treasury that has been open to us this long time.

"Make your list of real wants in order to find your true treasures. Make a present to yourself of one of these by turning one of the keys above. "
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]