Holy Days
“The
holidays are only holy if we make them so.”
Marianne
Williamson
For some of us, the
holidays are something to celebrate. We revel in lights and music,
the ballet dances the nutcracker, the symphony plays Handel's
Messiah, our church choirs present cantatas and lessons and carols at
candlelight services, we watch the Grinch steal Christmas, the Polar
Express and It's a Wonderful Life for the 40th time, and
drag out all the once-a-year board games and card decks. The
gift-giving is always the highlight. Ritual events are expected;
traditions, deeply planted, have to be replayed with some degree of
exactness in order for the holiday to seem...well...holy.
For others of us, the
holidays are to be gotten through as best we can. We are expected to
act joyful and celebratory, but all we want is for them to pass
without incident. We're anxious about being with family, about the
state of the nation and the world, whether or not the gifts we are
giving are sufficient, and on and on and on. This is not the season
of joy, peace, and love, but the season of anxious endurance.
Whichever camp you fall
into, or perhaps you are a mixture of both, here is what you can do:
Make the holiday yours. Do what gives you cheer, what warms your
heart, what lights up your spirit. The holidays are only holy, only
joyful, only peaceful if we make them so, and we do that by creating
our own rituals, our own traditions. You don't have to buy into the
cultural norms, you don't have to act like you enjoy something you
clearly don't enjoy. You can just smile and do your own thing. Wish
everyone Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, happy whatever, and then
allow yourself to do what brings you joy. It is the joy within, the
peace within, the love within, that makes any day holy.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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