Most people I know are either Christian or Agnostic, so the circles I run in sing a similar tune: Merry Christmas! Be Jolly! It's the Season of Peace. Joy to the world. Happy, happy, happy.... And yet so often those sentiments seem to ring hollow when the real people in my life share their thoughts and feelings about late November to early January. There's So Much Stress!
I happen to love Thanksgiving and Christmas. Always have.... I was blessed with a family who love each other dearly and have made a big deal of being together (or missing each other), cooking and eating too much, partying, and gifting each other. (Although, since none of us really need anything, we have moved to non-gift-giving.) Even with my lucky history around the holidays, I look around and see people in pain, and I feel it with them.
Especially during this season, we are advertised to death. Sold everything from what our house decorations are supposed to look like to the obligation of giving just the right gift. It's another chapter in the "Keeping Up With the Joneses" book, as opposed to an outpouring of gratitude and sharing of our abundance.
Granted, I'm not saying this is everyone... there are some I know who love this season as I do. They revel in the traditions, want to put up the lights and decorate the tree -- at least the women and kids seem to ;) -- and for the most part, enjoy finding and wrapping gifts for the people they love.
Is it just that the holidays intensify already tightly wound springs? Adding another externally applied pressure to our busy lives?
I wonder how we can embody the peaceful, loving, and generous spirit that holy days are truly about, and how we can spread that love to everyone -- those who are like us, and those who are not.
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