Christmas 2020

 another point of view

I sit cross-legged in the armchair with my laptop in front of me, catching up on social media. Sadly, I see friends sharing posts of Santa attired in old jeans and a t-shirt: “Nobody’s getting anything this year”, and “Heck! There is nothing left for Christmas.” Many of us have faced financial struggles and losses restricting our freedom to buy and consume. We have felt caged in by the world-wide lockdowns and have faced empty shelves that once held all our needs. But what if we could gracefully move away from believing in our old patterns of thinking that no longer serve us. Could we accept the invitation to discover new opportunities that hold higher possibilities for new ways of being? What if this is our chance to transcend the past and reshape what this season means to us?

I invite you to connect with others around you to create a new dream this Christmas. We have an opportunity that is bigger and more meaningful than all our previous Christmases put together. If we are open to new perspectives we can leave behind the cheerless noise on media and listen to a soft, gentle voice that invites us to let go of our old expectations and come together in person or online as families and neighbours – adults, teens, small children, and our elders – with the intent to create something magical that will live on in our memories forever. There’s excitement in the air when we shop for just the right gifts to express the love we feel for our friends and family. But then we are often disappointed by the lackluster responses of those who already have everything they want or need. On Boxing Day stores are filled with people exchanging their gifts for something they like better. So what are some of the non-material gifts that we can give at Christmas that will be treasured, not be boxed up and returned?

What is this unprecedented opportunity quietly whispering to us? Let’s tune in and listen with a calm and peaceful state of mind. Regardless of whether we celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah of Kwanzaa, the invitation is open for everyone. Imagine the holiday festivities scented with the unmistakable perfume of gratitude and joy, with the sole purpose to live, experience, express, and share these gifts. What reverberations of melodious sounds would it create around the world if we all created just this one thing together this Christmas?

Would you prefer to look back at 2020 as the year that Christmas wasn’t up to par, or rather that it was a time of transformation when something truly remarkable arose out of the ashes of the pandemic? We have a choice to make. The perspective we choose influences the words we speak, our actions, our values, experiences and even our relationships. We are being invited to open up to a blank page and redraw the meaningful Christmas dream many of us have long forgotten or never known…a love affair with life itself that influences all the beloved people around us.
If some of our traditions no longer serve us, why not tweak them in ways that continue to hold to our true values but transcend the meaningless rituals that have been allowed to creep in. We need to respond meaningfully to a changing world.

Imagine what kind of atmosphere you can create this Christmas. While it can be stressful to spend weeks ahead, preparing all alone for the whole family and worrying about running out of time, your preparations can take on a lively lilt when you involve the children in fun ways. Plan crafts and things they love to do and get them to help in the kitchen. Their cookie decorations may not be perfect but these shared moments are precious and will always be remembered by family as beyond beautiful.
What if we were to decorate our Christmas trees with love instead of perfectly matched commercial decorations – with pure hand-crafted love messages hanging from the tree, created with warm feelings of closeness – divine emotions that we want to feel and express.

But are you among those who are alone, depressed, and dreading Christmas, weeks, even months ahead of the holiday season? What if you were to see the season through a different lens this year, letting go of the seemingly fixed version that is replayed in your mind year after year, again and again? What if you would put your focus on others – on people who need to be lifted out of lonely feelings like your own or out of conditions that are far worse than your own? Could you find a way to connect and spend time with some of them… to share and celebrate the real spirit of Christmas with unconditional love and caring? What if you were to find a way to get together with a few other people to bring some magic into places such as orphanages. Many of these children live in a world without love and yearn for someone who cares. Perhaps this new way of being will start you on a magical journey that you share with many others.

What if Santa’s bag was full of recipes spiced up with things like love, gratitude, acceptance, bonding, peace…and we all had the freedom to sprinkle them wherever we go. I’m in! I can’t wait to cook up a celestial culinary experience from these magical ingredients. I want to create everlasting memories with the people who surround me and also with people I don’t even know, yet. As a future Grandma, I will gather my grandchildren around me, and tell stories of how the Mysterious Transformation started with the Christmas of 2020, a time when the human family shared a warm, cozy feeling of being at home on Earth for the first time.

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Special thanks to Ricki Lane for her help. Click here to find her.