Give Warm Gifts

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This was long ago — not even at Karazin University yet, but back at the Institute of Therapy.

It was my Teacher's birthday — Lyubov Malaya, the institute's director — and, as always, a conference had been scheduled to coincide with the day.

Everyone arrived with gifts. So did I. Mine was a beautiful Danish ceramic teapot, wrapped in beautiful paper, finished with a bow.

I carried it up to the podium. Lyubov Malaya, never one for patience, immediately asked what it was.

"Something very warm," I told her.

She took it in her hands and, without even unwrapping it, pulled it into an embrace. Then she turned to the whole room and said, delighted: "Oh, it's true — it really is warm!"

It takes so few words to warm a room, to lift a mood.

Give warm gifts. Do this, and you'll find less susceptibility to the weather, no aches when the pressure drops, no gloom when the sky turns gray — only the lasting warmth of memory.

More about people can be found in the Index.

Mykola Iabluchanskyi 

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