Venus is in Pisces today, the sign of it’s exaltation and I thinking on my cross trainer this morning how few people really know how to give a gift. For example any gift with a string attached is not a gift but something grotesque in my mind. It is far worse than giving nothing so I wanted to state this… my opinion and also update what happened with the 2 books I mentioned on the video, Venus, Neptune, Giving, Leonard Cohen and Stephen Arroyo
I wound up getting the the Stephen Arroyo book from regular reader here, mega Libran, Becca. Becca is a librarian and somehow this enhanced this for me. Something about getting a book bought for you by a librarian who generally loans books, don’t they? Want a book? Go to the library, damn it! But she made sure I got that book which I enjoyed very much and I intend to write about it first chance I get.
Now the the Leonard Cohen book, I no longer have. I thought I would have it forever as much as it meant to me but in fact I gave it away some months ago.
What happened was the soldier’s son sent an email from Iraq. He was asking for certain things. Things like mouthwash and dental floss and books of course. And being on the road the soldier could not do much to get something together so he asked me to do it for him and I did.
I was stressed and out of time and money at the time so I put together some of everything he asked for, surprised I had everything on the list already on hand in some form.
I then looked around for some books and decided to send him the Energy Of Slaves when I realized it was the best thing I had. So what else would I give him, hmm? I sent that thing and I don’t miss it at all.
Do you know how to give a gift?
Diana – I think so. Give one with an expectation attached… Gah.
The best way to give a gift is without anyone else knowning you did it. That way they don’t feel any strings. I do this all the time and no one knows what I do.
“..for the person who is giving because they could be setting themselves up for disillusionment.”
If you ask me it’s even uglier. They are using the gift receiver so they can achieve this effect. This is why I used the word “grotesque”.
I give thoughtful gifts that would appeal to the receiver’s energy and often get calls for suggestions for gifts for other people. Astrology helps with that.
Recent experience with bad gift giving:
My mother, who lives three hours away, sent my daughters balloon bouquets a week ago on that Grand Cross Friday. I called to thank her and, loosely quoted, she said, “You are welcome! I just *looove* those girls so much, and as a matter of fact I don’t know what is around the bend but I was thinking that when you guys move you could buy a house with a mother-in-law apartment so that I can move in. I mean, I guess I could get my own place, but if I were there, then I could see them *all the time* and help you make dinner and stuff.”
!
I told her I that was not going to happen. . .it’s not like she’s 90 and incapacitated. . .gotta go Ma. . .there are dozens of balloons up in my face.
Is there a bad way to give a gift?
Oooooooooh that’s right, totally didn’t even think about that quite frankly lol
That’s very true and I think it’s mostly disappointing for the person who is giving because they could be setting themselves up for disillusionment.
I love giving rather than getting, any day but I don’t expect anything in return.
I have a Gemini coworker who gives things and is constantly reminding the person of what he gave them. That’s annoying too.
Yeah, gifts can even be insulting or belittling. One time my husband head of the IT department for the company he works for was gifted a book called something like “The Internet for Dummies” or something. We had to laugh at that one.
I remember reading an article in a women’s magazine about a woman whose neatnik sister gave her a dustbuster for Christmas. Ouch.
This reminded me of my [Cap Sun/Saturn conjunction] SO…describing his horror at the gift-giving procedure at Xmas with his family:
‘Everyone watches you open it and ooooohs and aaaaahs and says “What a nice! Thing!” It’s horrible!’
(He mocks his family with South Park’s Cartman’s voice, which never fails to put me in hysterics)!
The gift circle? A version of hell for some, apparently.
i had a gift given to me by a secret santa on the volleyball team that was pure malice. i knew something was up ’cause the girls had the giggles over it for a couple weeks beforehand.
*shrug* there’s all kinds of bad ways to gift.
i’m delighted when i can find something that someone actually really likes that they don’t have. it’s not always that easy to manage.
and well, i think a gift should be a gift. a direct transfer. energy going from giver to receiver. none of this implicit expectation of return. in any sense.
but that has a great deal to do with intention, which can be a pretty subtle thing.
Is a gift with expectation attached like a guy buying a girl a drink at the bar? Once a guy offered to buy me a drink a little while before the bar was closing. I declined a few times, but he continued to offer. I tried to make him understand that he won’t get much for it. When it closed, I walked out and he tried to catch up to me at 4:00 am, the rat bastard. Where was he expecting to walk me? Bar culture is a weird flesh trade. I don’t understand it. Particularly when a rejected guy curses at a girl he was trying to win over a minute ago. No respect for the thing inside the body. What did you observe when you were a bartender, Elsa?
“What did you observe when you were a bartender, Elsa?”
I was young but it seems less malicious to me. Mostly noted correlation between drinking and bad judgment in general.
I will never forget, “Ginger”. Beautiful girl, she’d come in the bar all cleaned up.. really a nice person and she would have total intention to be cleaning up her act.
However, 3 hours later she’d be out giving blow jobs in the parking lot – yet again. Very sad – alcoholism. I finally had my fill and quit @ 23 years old after almost 8 years of it.
🙁
Thank you for reminding me that I don’t want to take a bar job again this summer