Holidays can push us to a breaking point. . .

I love the holidays.  I love the bright lights, the decorated trees, the carols playing in the stores and on the radio, the gift giving, the joy that’s so evident in the faces of many children.  The faces of some adults too, for that matter.  I truly have a childlike love of Christmas.  And I always have had.

One of my favorite decorations is a small Santa and sleigh with a reindeer that is older than me.  It had a special place under our tree when I was a child.  Now it has a special place on my mantle.  But I know that for some, this holiday is extremely tough. Even tougher than last year’s holiday.  More jobs have been lost.  Homes too.  And the future doesn’t seem very promising.

For those individuals, and they number in the millions, it’s important to give of our time, perhaps an extra donation to the food bank or the purchase of an additional doll or truck or teddy bear that we can give to a shelter or our church to be donated to a child who will go wanting otherwise.  Making the holiday special for some one is the greatest blessing we can give ourselves, actually.  Generosity expands our hearts and it’s in the act of generosity that we feel the true spirit of the holidays.

In the midst of the joy that can be felt during the holiday season, I know many who are stressed by the extra activities to be handled.  It’s very easy to fall into that trap.  However, I think it’s easy to get out of it too if we focus on this moment and only this moment that stands before us.  I think stress exists in the anticipation of future moments that have not yet arrived.  If we live here and only here, we can be at peace, always.  And this will mean that in this holiday and in any holiday we will be graced with the spirit of the season, the spirit of the moment, the spirit of the souls who are traveling this path with us.

Any one, and I mean any one, who passes our way today; the bell ringers at the entrance of the many stores we frequent, the homeless on the street corners of every city, the children we notice looking longingly in the windows of the toy stores have all made their appearance so we can give a bit more of ourselves in prayer, in hope, in generosity in some form.  Let’s not hold back this year.  Let’s make this holiday better for some one and it will make it better for us too.