“LIFE IS GIVEN TO US,
 WE EARN IT BY GIVING IT.”

A poet at age 8, the first non-European Nobel prize winner in 1913, writer of novels, essays, short stories, dramas, and 2,230 songs, Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali, Indian writer who reshaped his region’s literature and music. He emulated his quote above by documenting discoveries and insights from travels to more than 30 countries on five continents, and sharing them across cultures and generations. He demonstrated uncanny foresight in the following passage written in 1915: “Who are you, reader, reading my poems a hundred years hence? I cannot send you one single flower from this wealth of the spring, one single streak of gold from yonder clouds. Open your doors and look abroad. From your blossoming garden gather fragrant memories of the vanished flowers of a hundred years before. In the joy of your heart may you feel the living joy that sang one spring morning, sending its glad voice across a hundred years.”

Just shy of a hundred years later, he is still earning by giving.

As we begin this holiday season, let us be inspired by Tagore’s words. That our gift of life is earned by giving life. That penned words can create magic when they communicate our authentic feelings. Words of appreciation, admiration, affection, respect, gratitude, forgiveness and love. The giving of our life and light allows us to, as Tagore so eloquently wrote, earn it by giving it.

Will our words continue to give life and earn life a hundred years from now?

I’m not certain about that, but I am making my list and checking it twice.

Wishing you and yours love and laughter this season of giving.

Carpe Diem,

Gary Friedman
Chairman & CEO