Merry Christmas, With Gratitude
It’s Christmas Eve as I am writing this. After I post this, we will load food and presents into our car and travel several hundred miles to be with family for the holiday. Sitting in the car seat I will finally relax, knowing that I’ve done everything I can do to make sure this is a nice holiday for everyone—and even if I haven’t done everything I could do, the opportunity to do more has passed. It is a lovely feeling to finally allow myself to relax and let go.
I don’t know why I have to get to the point of near exhaustion to finally let go and relax—just a bad habit, I suppose. But once I finally get to this point, I allow the gratitude to rush over me, fill me, spill out of me. I’m like one of those sappy gals that bawls over the Hallmark commercials when I really get on a good rant of appreciation. Every doggone leaf on every tree is appreciated in all it’s intricate glory, every wrinkle in my precious husband’s face, every eyelash, every fragrance nature offers, including skunk, is included in my torrent of gratitude. You cannot have such a wellspring of gratitude without feeling delicious. It’s almost like the feeling when you’re giving birth, only instead of feeling like you’re filled with unbearable pain, you’re filled with unbearable joy—joy so massive, you MUST let it out. When you are feeling joy like this, you KNOW you are creating good things for yourself and others. There simply is no doubt.
On this Christmas eve, my wish is that more people will consciously come to that place of gratitude. Maybe they’ll even decide to get there before the approach of exhaustion. Maybe they consciously go there simply because they can and they know it’s a lovely place to be. No matter what the circumstances of our lives, there is always so very much to be grateful for, so much to savor. Even if our lives are filled with tragedy, we can momentarily pull back from the intense focus on our sadness and feel gratitude for the love of friends, family, or even a pet. We can feel gratitude for the powerful sun coming up, the expanse of heavens above us, the bounty and healing power of nature. No matter what is happening in our own lives, there is always an opportunity for massive gratitude.
So on your Christmas day, I hope you will take the opportunity to drink up the gratitude, fill yourself with it until it is impossible not to share it. You will be blessed while you bless others.
Merry Christmas.
