The Holidailies prompt for today is "If you could give any gift to anyone, what would you give, and to whom?"

This one is easy. If I could, I would give the gift of surcease from pain for a member of my church.

She is in agony, all the time. It's the kind of pain that makes her curl up in the fetal position, then, unable to endure that, stretch and move, uncontrollably, as if movement could block the pain for a moment. She whimpers. When she moves just wrong, she starts to vomit.

I have never seen such awful pain and if I could take it away from her (even if I had to take some of it myself), I would. Nothing works, not meditation, not medication, not guided imagery. She asks to die, every day, but her traitor heart keeps beating.

Considered in this light, no gift of money or things is of consequence. Only the gift of health or hope matters.

May you have good health and hope for the new year.