When at storm’s end, I see a rainbow, a radiant spectrum of color arching through the sky, my eyes light up in delight at the vision and my soul rejoices at the wonder of the palette presented for my viewing. At that moment, I perceive the sighting of the rainbow as a gift to my senses. 

The rainbow is the result of refraction of the sun’s rays in raindrops or mist. It does not form itself to give you or I a gift, it is merely submitting to natural imperative of nature’s laws. However, regardless of the fact that the phenomena is a natural one and not created especially for me, not formed for the pleasure that it gives me, it does not change the fact that I receive it as a gift. 

When I gave birth to my children and heard their first cries as they took that first breath of life, I perceived those sounds to be a gift to my ears, evidence that they were well and alive, bringing the gift of peace to my heart. 

When those first cries of life emanate from my child, my child does not proffer them as a gift to me. Those cries are the result of his dissatisfaction with his new surroundings, the shock of the cold air replacing the warm amniotic fluid he has been bathed in and the indignity of being held upside down and spanked on his bottom eliciting pain and displeasure. He does not cry to give me a gift, he has no thought of the pleasure I will derive from hearing his crying, or the gift of relief it gives me. Nonetheless, to me, hearing that cry is a gift. 

When I am standing behind someone holding a small child, a child whose head is resting on their shoulder with eyes fixed upon me, and that child suddenly smiles at me shyly, my lips automatically curve into a smile as a feeling of warmth courses through me. I perceive that smile to be a gift. 

This child does not smile at me to please me. This child does not consider his smile a gift to me. He does not know that his smile will touch something deep inside of me that revels in the innocence and simplicity of his upturned lips. Nonetheless, those feelings to me, are gifts. 

When draught has turned a farmer’s normally rich field to dust and his crops are dying, and nature deigns to at last provide the much needed rain to restore the arid earth to fertility, that farmer perceives that rain to be a gift. 

The rain does not fall to answer the prayers of this specific farmer. The rain falls because it is the result of an accumulation of natural phenomena meeting in nature. The rain does not care if it is perceived as a gift nonetheless, to the farmer with the arid field, the rain is a blessing and is received as a gift from nature. 

So it is with my submission. I do not have to perceive my submission to be a gift, for I am doing what I was born to do, allowing my innate nature to manifest itself in the most natural of ways. 

However, when my Master looks down at my kneeling form and sees my eyes lowered in respect, my back straight and my breasts jutting proudly, my body naked for His pleasure, I touch something deep inside of Him and a light fills His soul. While my submission in this manner to Him is merely the result of my innate submissive nature pleasing itself, He in fact receives this and perceives it as a gift and is pleased. 

When I submit my body for His use and for His pleasure, I am in fact submitting to my nature, allowing my innate essence to be manifest. When I allow Him to find His pleasure in bringing me pain, again I am submitting to my own nature. He however, perceives this submission as a gift, deriving great pleasure from my surrender of my body to His will and His whims, delighting in His dominion over me. 

A gift, need not be something that the giver intends to proffer as a present. How many of U/us have received a present that W/we did not care for, want, like or enjoy? The receiver, regardless of what the giver intended, does certainly not perceive these presents, as gifts. Whether or not something is a gift is determined not by the person giving but rather, determined by how the recipient perceives that which they have received. It is not reliant upon whether or not the gift is the resultant manifestation of a natural phenomenon or the acting out of our innate nature. It is a gift if the receiver perceives it to be such, and in that manner and for that reason, my submission to my Master is a gift, one I give to Him every day.