Our Gift to Each Other (Substack Writings)

Every person we meet, whether for a moment, a season or a lifetime, has the potential to impact us in some way. The key is recognizing the gifts we each offer the other. Whether we know it or not, it’s greater than we think.

More than a simple meeting

There was some incredibly beautiful writing I read that inspired me to write this reflection about the impact and significance others have in our lives — whether it’s family, friends, partners, children, pets, strangers, etc.

Sometimes I think we’ve been taught to treat our interactions and journey with others as transactional — what can this person do for me, how does this serve me — rather than illuminating — what someone might reveal to us simply by being who they are. When in truth, impact and meaning is possible with everyone we meet, just because of who they are, whether you meet them for a lifetime, for a season, or just for one tiny moment in time.

Like the mother you know, who painfully broke generational cycles that cost her dearly, so her daughters could grow up free to be who they are, independent, and deeply loved.

It’s the extraordinarily brave lady on your flight, terrified and shaking who explains she lost her husband and son in a plane crash but must travel anyway. Later you learn she’s running to be the first female mayor of her small Mexican town.

It’s the homeless Vietnam veteran who was forced into service, barely surviving his return and tells you he felt betrayed and remains bitter that he was left behind without care by the country he sacrificed his life for.

It’s the dearest one, who is finding herself and her heart again so bravely, so powerfully, remembering she is the gift and the poem, unlike anyone else, as she inspires you, thousands of others and one day, even her own little one to do the same.

Beneath the surface, greater meaning

In every moment, we are provided these encounters that perhaps seem ordinary, daily occurrences but beneath the surface, carry so much more meaning than we think. Providing us a glimpse into the struggles and the sacrifices, the hurts, the resilience, the power, and the love we all carry.

Because sometimes it’s not always what someone has done for us that makes the impact, but who they are in that very moment. The mother courageously breaking cycles for the sake of her daughters, the woman living on past tremendous grief, the veteran with the most profound will to live, the dearest one finding her way back to herself — what’s inspiring is their resilience, their strength, their will to keep going. That’s the teaching moment. That’s the gift.

What I take, and what we can all take, from these encounters with our extraordinary fellow humans is how powerfully resilient we are, and how we are all, in some ways, role models and teachers for each other. And there is nothing we need to do to earn that. Whether it’s 60 years of breath, or a brand-new life with only 60 days of breath, we are valuable and worthy just the same, because we exist — all navigating this thing we call life the best we can.

Whether for a lifetime, a season, or a tiny moment, we are valuable in ways we can never know and we have much to teach each other. That is our gift, whether we know it or not. A special gift indeed. 🤍 ~ C