"My father loves doing calligraphy," said Gauri in her quiet way when it was her turn to speak in the Awakin circle, "and he was inspired to share something with all of you as a New Year's gift." That "something" was a set of handcrafted bookmarks, each painstakingly created and inscribed with a wisdom quote. Gauri's father lives in Pune, India. He has spent the last several months working on these bookmarks and mailing them out to his daughter in batches. He was determined to have them reach the meditation circle in time for the New Year. And he wanted to make sure there was enough for every single person who attended. A remarkable gift of love from someone we have never met. The bookmarks were the latest in a series of creative tags, every week these days seems to bring its own form of heart-inspired art into play. A few weeks ago, a group of friends gathered together in honor of a couple who are expecting a baby. They created and paid-forward to the Awakin circle a huge basket of "Seeds for Life" -- little decorative packets of unmarked flower seeds dedicated to all the yet-to-be-born babies of 2013. Just a couple weeks earlier the circle had received another beautiful expression of generosity in the form of a bag full of cereal bars -- an ordinary food item made extra-ordinary by the little handwritten quotes that were fastened around each one with bright ribbons, and the instructions that accompanied the gift. These bars were meant to be placed in the glove compartments of people's cars, and gifted to the next person in need encountered on the street. A week earlier another gift had been paid-forward in the form of delightfully crafted origami pieces -- jumping frogs, hearts, lilies and the like that also came with affirmations and small holiday gift-tags. What more perfect antidote to the commercialism of this season could there be than these humble, homemade, offerings and the alchemy of the intentions behind them? :)