This poem is for my husband.
I don’t know if we have ever
given each other gifts,
ever given each other gifts
that meet the other’s need
as much as we’d hoped.
I don’t know if I will ever know the very gift
he wants,
or be able to give it, if I did.
But I want to know.
I want to be able to give him that.
If I could, if that gift was mine to give.
And this year that wanting is enough.
So when he gives me the yellow dress
that I will never wear
and he laughs because he knows
I am going to return it,
he will know that I have understood
and not begrudged his gift.
If I could see inside his heart,
I believe there is a place that he
wants to give me a gift I want,
and this Christmas that will be enough.
I don’t think there is any better gift than
contentment.
It is something
that we can even give ourselves
when we return
to God.
