In my first post, I wrote a bit about being an encourager as a birthright gift – that is, a core quality of my being since the earliest days. Other gifts have come to me from experiences along the way of my life. It’s not the holiday or birthday celebrations, with the presents that they often brought, that come to mind. It’s those more significant occasions of surprise that, often or eventually, I’ve come to understand as life-changing gifts, both small and large. For instance, there was the time William Stafford, the poet, gave me a great question to ask about my work. I certainly did not perceive all of those moments to be gifts at the time. However, with the passage of time – and sometimes following decades of time – I remember those occasions as the most important minutes, hours, or days of my life.

I find myself remembering those important instances and calling them my “homecoming gifts” because they have brought me “home” to myself. Those events and experiences have somehow merged and congealed – along with my birthright gifts – to become the core of my being over time. In most cases I did not ask for these gifts; they came to me on the breeze – sometimes the windstorm! – of serendipity. Of course, I continue to plan and arrange because I’ve always been the “thinking ahead type.” But more and more I’ve come to trust “just what’s happening” because it’s the surprises that have helped make me who I am.

And so, in the posts that follow (read on!) I will share some stories about those “homecoming gifts” – those times that, over time, have been life-forming and life-giving for me. I’ll share what’s been important and significant as I see it at this time of my life. As I indicated earlier, “that magic time” allows earlier days to be clearly illuminated; it’s a time when I am truly able to make sense of the “homecoming gifts” that have gone before.

This is a personal account. Yet, I want to invite you on your own “magic time” journey as well. After each story, I’ll ask: And, how about you? What have been the surprises in your life that, on reflection, have been life-forming and life-giving? I hope you’ll enjoy these stories of mine. And, I hope that they might evoke and encourage your own memories that will – somehow and in some way – bring you home to your true self. May remembering some stories of your own homecoming gifts bring you further along your own homeward road.