Every Person Is A Gift

This could also be phrased, every life is a gift, though a person becomes who they are by living their life. It's hard to imagine a world with seven billion people, seven billion lives and so many more that have lived on this giant blue planet. It is impossible to meet every person who is alive during one's lifetime, but it is possible to meet people who will change us, even if we meet them once and never see them or hear their voice speak to us again. When we see how people touch us, we can see how they gave us a new perspective, bring us together, allow us to smile, take time to be there, teach us something or show us part of life we had never seen, we can see what that person means not only to us, but to life itself.

Behind everything we enjoy is a person who helped form a song, a meal, a memory, a hope, or our very existence. There was a person who you didn't know that well who smiled at you. There was a friend who challenged you to do something you didn't know you could do until you did it, and then you realized how much it changed your life. All it takes is one person to realize how life changing another life is. We each have a wealth of experience from different places, different people, and different perspectives. Currently we have over seven billion of these to teach us, laugh with us, move us, and be a part of our lives.

While there are people who have hurt us, betrayed our trust, and threatened our sense of who we are that may not seem like a gift, they have things to teach us about adversity, reconciliation, and strength to overcome and rise above. For the challenges in life have been said to be there for a reason, they ultimately take us to who we will become, and who we need to be for tomorrow.

It is said that life is short, but it can be extended if we live moment by moment aware and mindful of just how exceptional life is. There are plenty of hardships that can make us appreciative of what we have, and show us how we need each other. Even the strangers in our life can offer pieces of existence forming the garden of life. It's hard to imagine, but many times in our lives, we are strangers to many people, and by giving others the benefit of the doubt in conversations we may have only one with them, we may receive something similar in return. Call it karma, what goes around comes around, or kindness, the person you meet briefly tomorrow can be a gift if you let them show you what life is going to be at that time.

  Standing in the water at Jones Beach State Park. 

Sitting in a park along the Genesee River.

The people in the photos above are people I never met, and may never see again. They may or may not have been a gift to me, but I'm sure they are to other people.