By Deb Boelkes
We all have our own unique gifts. In fact, my latest book, Strong Suit: Leadership Success Secrets from Women on Top is all about helping you identify and leverage those special gifts, talents and personal traits that not only come naturally to you, but you enjoy doing, you excel at, and—when put into action—make you the very special person you authentically are.
Perhaps you have certain gifts that you love to share with others, simply to bless and enrich their lives. How would you define those special gifts?
In my case, outside the business world, I lead and/or participate in several civic and social organizations. One of them is the Philanthropic Educational Organization (commonly referred to as P.E.O.). This “sisterhood of women” was originally organized in 1869 by seven freshmen women at Iowa Wesleyan University in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. It eventually expanded to include women off campus, and now—150+ years later—this sisterhood boasts nearly 200K members in 5600+ chapters across the United States and Canada.
These days P.E.O. is defined as:
“A philanthropic organization where women celebrate the advancement of women; educate women through scholarships, grants, awards, loans and stewardship of Cottey College; and motivate women to achieve their highest aspirations.”
P.E.O.’s overarching purpose is to raise and award funds to help deserving women attain vocational, postsecondary, and post-graduate degrees.
One of the ways some P.E.O. chapters raise these funds is through a program called P.E.O. Bed & Breakfast (B&B). What initially began as a one-time project in 1978, the P.E.O. B&B program provides a home-away-from-home for travelling P.E.O. members and their guests while generating dollars for our philanthropic projects.
I particularly enjoy participating in this unique philanthropic program—both as a host and as a guest— because I cherish the opportunities to get to know members from across North America. I also love knowing that as members, we can always count on having a safe, comfortable, and welcoming place to stay while travelling virtually anywhere from sea to shining sea, at a price well below the going commercial rate of local hotels. Best of all, 100% of the proceeds go to funding P.E.O. scholarships, grants, awards, and loans. It’s what I call an infinite win—for the members who enjoy playing hostess, for traveling members on the road, and for the thousands of women awarded P.E.O. funds to attain their education.
I recently played hostess to a P.E.O. and her husband in the process of selling their home out west and in search of a new home in our vicinity. One day during their stay, while out with their realtor, they took an afternoon break at the realtor’s multi-acre property which boasted a gloriously prolific grapefruit tree chock full of huge, ripe fruit. The realtor gifted them two of these luscious fruits for our next morning’s breakfast.
When I cut into these juicy grapefruits while preparing breakfast I couldn’t believe my eyes. Each piece was heavily laden with dozens of extremely large seeds. Yet, after carefully extracting all those seeds, there was still an abundance of sweet, juicy fruit to enjoy. What a special treat!
Normally I would have just thrown all those seeds away, but they were so large, it seemed a shame to toss them out. So, I set them aside and after our guests had departed for the day, I searched online for some insights on growing grapefruit trees from seed.
I quickly found a website with the headline: Growing Grapefruit from Seed in 5 Easy Steps.
That sounded good to me. So, I followed their simple instructions:
1. Carefully collect all the viable, undamaged seeds.
2. Soak all the viable, undamaged seeds in a glass of water for about 24 hours, then pat-dry each seed to remove the slime from the coat. Then gently remove the coating from the seeds.
3. Spread the smooth brown seeds on a well-dampened paper towel. Cover with another well-dampened paper towel and place in a covered plastic container. Place the container in a warm dark place for 2 to 3 weeks before looking again.
Three weeks later I was amazed at the virtual orchard of germinated seeds. Each seedling had grown into a 2” tall sprout, and most sprouts had two or more tiny leaves. So now I was ready to take the next step:
4. Place each seedling into individual CowPots filled with rich garden soil.
I placed more than 5 dozen of these CowPotted-seedlings on a large tray under indoor grow lights where the seedlings could continue to grow until the weather had warmed up enough to transplant them outdoors. I gave the rest (another two dozen or so) to friends who were eager to grow their own trees. I had become so attached to these little creatures that it felt as though I was giving away a huge litter of puppies.
Once the weather warms up to a consistent 70+ degrees, I’ll move on to Step 5: Transplant the Grapefruit Seedlings.
I certainly don’t have room in my yard for dozens of grapefruit trees, so one of these days I’ll have to find good homes for the rest of these amazing little wonders. They’ll indeed make terrific gifts that will keep on growing and giving for years to come.
Some friends have suggested I should start a grapefruit business. I suppose I could but giving them away is just so much more fun for me. It’s almost like Christmas. The greatest joy is in giving, and it feels so good to offer gifts that not only last a lifetime but will keep on giving to future generations.
So now, I’ll ask you again: What’s a gift that you possess that you could freely give to others, simply for the joy derived from blessing and enriching others’ lives?
Just imagine what the world would be like if we all chose to use our gifts…as gifts.