The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Not a bad place to go for a run. Just don't stop too long to enjoy the view, or you'll freeze.

Above Perry, Utah is a mountain called Grizzly Peak. It has a fantastic trail leading to its summit from Perry Canyon. It’s not far from my school and I enjoy running it after work on occasion. Last year I ran it several times through the winter. I learned very quickly that I did not have to dress very warm. The trail was steep enough and I was working hard enough that I manage to stay warm wearing a minimal amount of clothing even though the summit was always howling with wind. The wind chill had to be in the single digits or lower, and I would be wearing only my running shoes, a light pair of running tights, a long sleeve shirt, a wind breaker, light running gloves, and a beanie. But if I stopped for even a few seconds, I would start to get dangerously cold. I had to keep running or become hypothermic! I had to move forward or freeze.

Technically, this is Ben Lomond not Grizzly Peak,
but it's only a few miles away and you get the idea.

It may sound a little crazy, but I loved that biting wind. It motivated me to run a faster and more sustained pace than I ever would have in more comfortable temperatures. It pushed me to progress when I didn't have the motivation to push myself. And it felt good to work that hard! If only there was a freezing winter wind to get me to write more and faster! Or is there?  

I have taught many students who are talented writers over the years. While in my Creative Writing class, they produce prolific amounts of quality work. Later in the year, I will see them in the hall and ask, “Are you still writing?” Almost without exception, they say no. The reason is always the same, without a class to “make” them do it, they stop producing. There’s no threat of frost bite if they stop, so they get a little lazy about it. Without an assignment or a deadline, many of us are the same way. The pressure is off and there’s no one to push us out of our comfort zone.

So why not give ourselves an assignment and a deadline to keep us moving forward? The best way I can think to do this is by creating something as a gift. Birthdays and holidays provide excellent opportunities for us to use our talents to create something personal for the people we care about. They get a great present that means far more than a gift card to Chuck-a-Rama and we get an assignment and deadline to keep our creativity from freezing.

This is a portrait of my mother-in-law, Pam, that I made for my wife. 

A good friend of mine, Gregg Batt, has inspired me again and again in this regard. For Christmas, birthdays, and occasionally for no particular reason at all, I can almost always count on a beautiful and unique handmade gift from him. He has given me watercolor paintings, charcoal drawings, oil paintings, prints, and, my personal favorite, pottery. Every time I am the lucky recipient of his art, I think, “That’s so cool! Why don’t I do that more often?”

One of the first pieces of pottery that Gregg ever made for me.
Obviously, he shares my love of rock climbing.

The fact is, I know exactly why I don’t use my talents to make gifts more often: I’m chicken. I worry that the recipient won’t like it, won’t understand it, they’ll think it’s dumb, they’ll make fun of it, or it will just go in a closet to be forgotten about. There’s a million other insecurities that I use as excuses not to go out into the cold wind even though the cold wind is exactly what I need.

An oil painting Gregg made for me of my favorite mountains in the whole world: The Willard Spires.

When running Grizzly Peak in the winter, the worst part is always when I first get out of the car. I’m comfortable in the car with the heater on. I can relax, listen to the radio, take a nap if I want to, drive to McDonald’s and eat a cheeseburger. I don’t want to get out.

When we’re having trouble taking that first step out of the car, it helps to remember who our creative gift is really for. Betty Jo N. Jepsen once said, “These are the gifts we bring. The talents we have come from our Heavenly Father, and to honor Him, we can develop and expand them and then return them to Him.” We are told how we return these gifts to Him in Matthew 25: 40 which reads, “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Think about that for a moment: Each gift we give, made from our unique God given talents, is really a gift to our savior, Jesus Christ. That thought alone should get us out of the car!

I made this accordion book for my wife and put a poem in it that I wrote for her.  

The second I open the door to the car, the cold, winter wind starts me shivering and the only thing to do is run and run and don’t stop! It’s hard to make ourselves commit to creating something as a gift for someone else, and we’re sure to curse ourselves in the beginning. But as we get to work on it and keep working on it, we will feel our bodies warm from the effort and the pressure to get it done becomes invigorating. It feels good to have an assignment and a deadline again. It keeps us moving forward and that keeps our creativity from freezing. 

A water color Christmas card that Gregg made for my family.

A "horse hair" pot that Gregg gave me. He literally used the hair from my horse's tail to create the cool black lines on it. If I understand it right, you burn the hair on the still glowing hot pot right after it comes out of the kiln.

Yet another gift from Gregg. My wife refuses to eat a salad out of any other bowl in the house.