Page 7 - PGA Community News - December '19

December 2019
December 2019 BW PGA C.A.N.!, Page 7

Let Me Tell You…
Tax Talk from page 6

I Received A Tax Bill For A Property I No Longer Own, $20, employees enjoyed the opportunity to dress down the
What Should I Do? entire month of October. Participating employees wore Gifts Galore
Anne: Forward the property tax bill to the new owner or a special Bahamas relief lanyard, a signal to clients the
mark the bill “sold” and return to our office. employee was dressed casually for this very important cause. By Marie Pinschmidt
Agency employees are committed to serving our Have you made your gift
Employees Give Back To community and making a positive impact. Last year list and checked it twice?
employees donated $21,665 to local nonprofits.
Gifts of great value do not
Hurricane Victims have to come in little blue
velvet boxes. You might
Deeply affected by Helping You Plan Ahead want to gift your loved one
the devastation caused Dec. 2 – Last day to receive 4 percent property tax discount. with a Modigliani nude
by Hurricane Dorian Do you have a birthday this month? Privately owned painting – sold for 157
in the Bahamas, agency vehicle registrations expire at midnight on the first owner’s million dollars last spring.
employees donated over birthday. Renew your registration for motor vehicles, mobile If you don’t like the artist’s
$4,100 to the Salvation homes, motorcycles or vessels online at www.pbctax.com. If elongated style you may
Army’s relief efforts in you have trouble renewing online, make sure your insurance prefer a Claude Monet that sold for 111 million this past
the island nation. For a information is up-to-date and there are no stops, holds or May. I’m sure you’ve heard the old cliché “It’s not the
minimum donation of violations on your driver’s license. gift but the gesture,” and I concur with that sentiment.
Gift giving is a good thing and nothing new. When Jesus
was born in a stable, the Three Wise Men (Magi) traveled
a great distance to welcome His birth with gifts of gold,
frankincense, and myrrh – considered precious gifts during
that era and still available today.
We have all been the recipient of many gifts that we
accept and use to our enjoyment or advantage, but often
take for granted. Yet they require no exchange of money,
endless shopping or gift wrapping. The gift of love, for
example, is no doubt the greatest gift we can ever receive
or give, but even a gift of love can cause pain as well as
joy. The Bible speaks of faith, hope and charity “but the
2020 SPRING TRAINING greater of these is love.” Let’s consider more of the often
under-appreciated or unacknowledged gifts:

Gift of friendship – cherished probably more than
any other, and so necessary. Gift of the senses: sight,
hearing, touch, smell and taste – all priceless. What if
we couldn’t see the beauty of nature, read books, view
television or movies, or look into the eyes of a loved one?
What if we couldn’t see a look of unbridled joy on the face
of children on seeing their first puppy, or touch and feel
the softness of a baby’s skin, or taste bread pudding with
whiskey sauce, or an ice cream bar on a hot day? What if
we couldn’t hear the beautiful music of Brahms, Chopin
or Mozart, or an evening of Dixieland jazz? Without the
gift of language, we would have no connection to the
great writers of history—poets, authors, great speakers like
Churchill – no Thoreau, Kahlil Gibran, or Mark Twain,
etc. – the list is endless. The broad scope of creativity in
all its forms is a gift to the world as well as to all of us
individually.
Less recognized are the gifts of imagination,
selectivity and thought, or the gifts of discernment and
reasoning. Would that we could give such gifts to those
in high offices in business and government – gifts that are
equally important in our private lives.
What would we do without the gift of laughter? It
would be a sad, sorrowful world for sure. Laughter is
supposed to be good for the soul as well as the liver, and
science has suggested we seek out more laughter to extend
our lifespan. Never have we needed laughter more to rise
above the nonsense and triviality we are exposed to almost
daily, as well as the natural disasters, tragedies and loss
of loved ones that leave us with broken hearts.
The gift of memory perhaps should be at the top of this
list. Losing one’s memory is probably mankind’s greatest
fear due to the terrible disease of Alzheimer’s. A lady
recently asked, “What if I forget who God is? Would I still
go to Heaven?” As we age, we often need our memories to
keep us sane, to look back on past accomplishments and
remember loved ones who helped make our life complete.
Particularly when we are the recipient, we must not
forget the gift of forgiveness and the gift of acceptance.
The gift of compassion opens our heart and makes us
kinder human beings and the results expand to embrace
and hopefully bring joy to others.
The gift of life itself is not just about the beginning
and the end but all the moments in between that make us
who we are, that make us stronger and more accomplished,
and able to give back even in some small way that most
precious of gifts. Even illness can be a gift when it enables
us to learn the real meaning of life and to appreciate the
health we have been given – and once recovered reach out
to be a help to others.
These notes are my gift to all of you who read my
essays, to think about and meditate upon wherever you
are on your life’s journey. This year, let’s all concentrate
not only on the perfect gifts on our lists, but on the many
gifts that last for a lifetime.

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