Which Gift to Buy

I’d been staring at my screen for days, the same three tabs open. The cart was full, but I couldn’t click ‘buy’. It wasn’t about the money, really. It was the quiet hum of trying to get it exactly right.

The Cart Becomes a Museum

Every item in there started to feel like a statement I wasn’t ready to make. A nice bottle of wine said one thing, a cozy blanket whispered another. I’d add something, then remove it an hour later, as if curating a collection no one would ever see.It was easier to just leave them there, suspended in digital limbo. That way, all the possibilities were still alive. Choosing one meant closing all the other doors, and my mind kept wandering back to open them.

When the Clock Finally Ticks

Then today happened. The event is tonight. The empty feeling in my hands became louder than all the thoughts in my head. All that mental energy, and I was still standing in the same spot, gift-less.I realized the perfect gift was the one I could actually go and get. The one that would be in my hands, wrapped, and given. Not the phantom ideal I’d been comparing everything to for a week.

A Simple List, a Simple Spin

I wrote down what was actually available nearby, things I knew they’d like well enough. Not love, maybe, but genuinely like. I stopped asking which was ‘best’.

The Relief of an Endpoint

When the wheel stopped, it didn’t feel like a compromise. It felt like permission. The loop was broken, not by a brilliant insight, but by a gentle, random nudge.