YOURS OR MINE?

"No Presents Please"… The line was prominently displayed on the invitation card for my marriage ceremony. A couple of days prior to my marriage, a close friend came visiting with a huge gift. When I refused to accept the gift, he pushed it in to the hands of my two-year old niece. She was thrilled to receive the gift and immediately started tearing off the gift paper. When unpacked, her excitement disappeared for the package contained a big storage tin, which was obviously of no use to her. So she gave the gift to me.

I nearly fell off my chair with laughter when I read the inscribed writing on the gift. It was gifted by somebody else to my friend on his marriage! He had chosen to "forward" the gift to me without realising that the earlier person had inscribed their names along with the date, for posterity. To the embarrassment of my friend, I handed the gift back, saying, "Sorry buddy, this gift is yours, not mine!"It happens many a time that we receive opportunities as packed gifts. And, we pass these gifts to somebody else, without knowing that they are actually meant for us.

We speak about our wait for opportunities, yet we do not recognise them when we see them standing right before our noses. Sometimes, they are pushed to where we might not see them, sometimes they are thrown away and worse they are just passed on.

It is not enough to receive opportunities; it is far more pertinent to note what we do with them. Too often, opportunities come disguised as difficulties. We must recognise the value and the scope of every gift of opportunity that comes our way. There is nothing wrong in sharing opportunity or offering it to someone else, but first see the dimensions hidden within. Only then it will be possible to develop the dimensions offered by that opportunity…

Recognise the gift that lies hidden in every opportunity,
“Develop new dimensions” to make the most of even adversity!

Regards
Pravin