The countdown is here: eight more shopping days before Christmas, and we still haven’t finished finding the perfect gifts for our family members. Our lists of requests are not finished, and the hunt goes on. But wait—what about a gift for your partner that doesn’t require money, a drive to the crowded mall, and wrapping paper?
Look around your tree and see all the pretty, wrapped boxes. What is missing is one of the most precious presents, and one that has actually been there all year long. It isn’t wrapped and doesn’t need to be returned.
Confused? Don’t be. It is the gift of time. Take an inventory of how you use your time and see if how it impacts your relationship.
Take the Bakers as
an example family. If Joy, a math teacher, and David, a sports and fitness coach, wanted to put stick figures of their family on the back windshield of their minivan, the line would be so long that it would roll over to the side windows. There are kids from his prior marriage and hers, plus the one they adopted together. The kids have bio parents and step parents. There are grandparents, who make extended stays, and there’s a neighborhood kid who hangs around so much, he might as well live there. Not to mention the Saint Bernard, Fluffy.
Santa called to ask Joy and David what they wanted for Christmas, and it is no surprise that they said time. And yet it is a fact of life that you can’t get extra time. Or can you?
In business, there are “angel investors,” meaning wealthy people who give money to fledgling start-up companies. In a relationship, your partner is your angel investor, who puts extra time in your pocket by helping you out when you need it most.
Joy Baker was good at many things, but there were two things she hated doing: hauling in Fluffy’s 50-pound bag of dog food from the van, and changing ceiling light bulbs and smoke detector batteries. David also had his weaknesses; he abhorred figuring out his taxes, which took him forever. This year, as they snuggled in front of the fireplace, asking each other what they wanted for Christmas, they hit on this marvelous plan of switching these tasks around for the year. It seemed as if the other person would be able to do those things more efficiently, making better use of time.
They also planned time just for the two of them to be together. You, too, could have a holiday get-together with just your sweetie. It would be time to hold hands, or just take in each other with loving eyes. If the funds are available, perhaps let the grandparents watch the kids and the two of you go out to a holiday show. Whatever you plan, giving time to each other is special, and it’s a present that hardly anyone would want to return.
This holiday season you might want to sit down with your partner to see if there’s a present of “time” that you can give this year. Make a list of life’s “jobs” and see if there’s anything you would like to swap. But most of all, celebrate your relationship and spend time with each other.
