Vitamin Give

This was going to be entitled "Vitamin Love" - but really, in so many ways, they're one and the same - don't you think?

As mentioned earlier, I'm ill. But I'm not so ill as to miss some of the finer moments of living ... such as the few listed below.

* My also-ill friend Melanie attempting to care for me instead of herself when she hears of my sickness;
* A birthday card (including cash!) from one of my least wealthy relatives;
* Friend Katie, overworked and overtired, preparing flowers and a love letter to send to a woman whose husband just left her;
* The beauty of allowing my five-year-old son, who rarely naps, a chance to catch up on his sleep just now (which is really a gift for the both of us);
* The words I just read from my favorite book - the words of a Lover enthralled with His beloved (me! you!) and anxious to give her (us!) rest, renewal, comfort, and peace -

I have loved you with an everlasting love;

I have drawn you with loving-kindness.
I will build you up again

and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel.

Again you will take up your tambourines

and go out to dance with the joyful."

Therefore I am now going to allure her;

I will lead her into the desert

and speak tenderly to her.
There I will give her back her vineyards,

and will make the Valley of Achor (trouble) a door of hope.

There she will sing as in the days of her youth,

as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

Jeremiah 31:3-4, Hosea 2:14,15

It is true. "Vitamin Love" would be an equally appropriate name for the gestures and words of kindness that I've caught sight of today. But what's struck me most about these gestures is their self-less-ness, their other-focused nature - and that's what I'd like to take with me. True giving not only enriches the one who happens to receive it, it also inspires that person to giving in like manner, to others.

Today, I have been a bountiful recipient.

Today, I will become a bountiful giver.