Unusual Wrapping Paper

Several years ago I was asked to present a keynote speech to thank donors for their generosity and encourage the scholarship recipients to pay-it-forward after graduation. The theme was crafted after Florence Littauer’s book “Silver Boxes: The Gift of Encouragement.” In it she describes silver boxes as verbal presents to encourage one another on life’s journey.

I told stories of current and past recipients receiving gifts wrapped in imaginary silver boxes. One was about a young girl who had lost all hope after a break up with a boyfriend. Then there was the student whose Father lost his job and she was going to have to drop out of school because she could no longer afford tuition. And maybe the most touching story was that of a coed whose Mother had been diagnosed with cancer and the girl was the primary caregiver. All of their income was now being spent on health care and just when things seemed hopeless, she received a gift of encouragement - a scholarship to help with tuition. But it wasn’t just the money. She told me that she was about give up and quit school. What mattered most to her was that the scholarship encouraged her that someone believed in her. That made all the difference.

When I was in the first grade small gifts made a big impact on me. I spent more than my fair share of time in the principal’s office for talking too much. Subsequently, I started dreading school. I would be just fine in the morning, but shortly after arriving at school, I would get “sick” and my Mother would be called to come and get me. It was amazing how I always had a miraculous recovery the minute I walked in the front door of our house.

My Mother devised a plan. She began wrapping a small gift in aluminum foil and putting it in my lunch box. It may be a ring from the bubble gum machine, a piece of jaw breaker candy or a pencil sharpener. She required that I stay until lunch before I opened the gift. I eagerly tore into it each day. But it wasn’t the gift that I was searching for; it was the note that said, “I love you” or “I am proud of you” or “You are my favorite child.” Well, that last quote wasn’t quite exactly what she said, but I figured she meant that even if she didn’t say it. These small gifts wrapped in silver encouraged me.

Last week, I noticed purple fingernail polish on a friend who usually doesn’t wear any. She confided “Mother had her first chemotherapy treatment and her favorite color is purple. I’m wearing purple to encourage her.”

I gave a gift to her - in a silver bag with purple tissue paper. Inside were 3 purple silicone wristbands for her mother, her boyfriend and her to wear. They were engraved with “No one fights alone.”

My mother taught me how to wrap gifts with love and caring regardless of whether they are wrapped in aluminum foil, silver boxes with purple tissue paper or no box at all.

In giving,

Robin