Holding the Unwrapped Gift with Reverence

I’ve been thinking this week about gifts and thresholds; the moment you open one or the moment you cross another. 

This orchid is the way the moment looks, that moment that can be the length of a breath, or a glance, or a lifetime; the moment before you unwrap the gift that will change you or cross the threshold that will bring you to yourself.
I’ve left words scattered all over my table, written and erased numberless times to find a way to describe that moment before you unwrap a resonant gift.  Finally when words failed me I saw this orchid against the snow.  This is what the moment looks like.

Sometimes we need to hold the unwrapped truth for a time.  I imagine the times when we are conscious that a gift given is a threshold gift we want to approach reverently, holding the gift in our  heart’s hands, wondering what piece of transformation it has for us and what we will look like when we have opened it.

The holding of its mystery can be quite rich in itself.  The holding is part of what is to be unwrapped.  To be with it is good.  The time will come for its unwrapping.  Now it is enough to know it is there.

I have no words for it.  I invite you into the image.  I hope for you the gift.