Three dimensional gifts

Interrupting my brief series on time, space, and people to give honor where it’s due — to my wife that gives good gifts.

Gift giving can be the worst. Like when you send your grandma your Amazon list and you unwrap a random selection of those things on Christmas morning. It’s not necessarily wrong, but it is childish.

Unfortunately, under most circumstances, this is all that we can do. We love someone and we want to show it, but we don’t know how. How else do you give a gift to extended family? Or children living in a different city? Or loved ones that are two generations behind you?

If you’re lucky, however, you have one person who is close. Someone who knows you fully. Someone who sees you daily. Someone who listens carefully. That type of person can pick up on things others can’t. When it comes time to give a gift, they can materialize a dream, a desire, an off-hand comment that makes you feel seen in ways you didn’t know you needed. You get gift-sniped.

I try to snipe all my loved ones with gifts. It’s fun, making people feel seen. Birthdays and holidays are a great excuse for this.

Aubrey, on the other hand, gives a different type of gift. If you’re looking for a bullseye, she’s slightly to the right. But keep in mind, the target is two dimensional. Aubrey doesn’t gift snipe you in two dimensions by making you feel seen in the present based on something from the past. Aubrey snipes you in the three dimensions — past, present, and future. Aubrey gives prophetic gifts.

Three years of receiving gifts from Aubrey is enough time to see the trend: An unreasonably nice calligraphy pen that initiated my writing practice for two years running. An e-ink tablet that became the hub of my productivity across work and life. And now, on my birthday this morning, an iPod Classic to fill my soul with hand-curated music.

I asked for none of these things. I expressed interest in the concept — writing, analog productivity, non-algorithm driven music — but there is something deeper that is empowered with her gifts, as if she sees the person underneath the dream and gives them the perfect tool to come forth.

Three dimensional gifts can be confusing at first. Which is tough — everyone, especially Aubrey, is worried that they miss the mark. Sometimes it’s days, weeks, months until you can see the effects. But with enough time, the two-dimensional target folds at the perfect place and the gift nails the bullseye because you can see the type of person that has emerged.