Now that the holidays are over, we have a bit of a break from what can sometimes seem like an overwhelming amount of festivities. Over the years, my opinion of holidays has ebbed and flowed. My first Christmas that I was working at a retail book store in a large mall, I loathed the holiday season. The only reason we had any Christmas decorations was because my mom sent over a table top fiber optic Christmas Tree.
Now that I live several states away from my closest family members, holidays around here are pretty low key. While I appreciate being able to lay low and not worry about who’s house to arrive at when and fitting parties into work schedules and all that, I confess that I do miss the bustle and busy-ness of visiting family and hyperactive, Christmas-supercharged children. At the same time, a quiet day of painting or reading is a pleasant little Christmas gift to myself.
There’s a great deal of media hype about the so-called war on Christmas, which mostly boils down to a war of words about whether your Christmas should be merry or your holidays happy or your Yule Log bright. I think that despite the general negative press that the holidays get, the hype about how commercial and material they have become, and all of the general griping that goes along with it all, the holidays are good for us.
We all tend to work too hard, think too hard, feel too tired and crabby, too many days of the year. No matter how you choose to celebrate any holiday, whether you are one to throw a huge gala event, a family feast or celebrate at home with a good book, what’s important is that you allow yourself to have a little celebration in your life.
Celebrate the big things like Christmas and Thanksgiving, but celebrate the little things, too. Celebrate your birthday. Instead of lamenting your age, feel grateful that you have one more year of life to live and dreams to dream and chances to do the things you aspire to do.
Celebrate the first robin of spring. Celebrate small successes and big victories. Celebrate births and milestones and anniversaries.
The choice to celebrate the good bits of life makes it a little easier to get through the mundane bits, and makes it easier to survive the rough times. It’s part of all that we do that helps us balance our lives, find new strength, and recharge our batteries.
So, it doesn’t matter if you want to celebrate something by dropping a few thousand bucks on gifts, or by having a cupcake at your desk, or by having a nap. Find ways to celebrate all that is good and right with the world.
Now, I think will celebrate completing this blog post. Perhaps with nap. 🙂
Spiritual Tea 