I have written often of my father’s love of music. He also loved dogs and animals of all nature and music of the holiday season. My father’s music tastes were eclectic. He loved bagpipes, swing, country and wester, big band, classical, jazz, and just for fun, he’d throw in some Ravi Shankar.
I know that this version of Little Drummer Boy with Bing Crosby and David Bowie would have been one of his favourites. It always makes me tear up.
There are many people
who want to be everywhere at once,
and they get nowhere.
~ Carl Sandburg ~
Gotta love Carl Sandburg. He takes something so obvious, states it in a way I’ve never thought to look at it and suddenly, I see it like I’ve never seen it before.
Like wanting to be everywhere at once and getting nowhere, wanting to do everything at once can also lead to nowhere.
And that happens every Christmas for me.
I make a list of all the things I’d like to get done, and then, begin the flurry of activity that is supposed to lead to everything being done in time for me to enjoy the big day in peace and joy.
Except, on my list I didn’t include the live each day in the now and treasure each moment as it comes part and voila! Christmas is a week away and my list is nowhere close to being completed and I am nowhere near feeling calm and centered and balanced in my festive undertakings.
How human.
How fascinating!
Someone asked me yesterday if I was finished all my Christmas shopping.
I laughed. Shopping? Oops. Forgot to put that on my list!
My list is comprised of things like:
As you can see, ‘Christmas practical’ like gift-buying is not on my Christmas list — but Pinterest is!
I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest. Filled with amazing ideas and examples of what I can do to create the perfect party, dinner, photo album, gift, or anything else you can imagine, Pinterest is a constant source of ideas to Pin for future reference.
Challenge is, future reference seldom comes.
Pinterest feeds my need for searching for ideas on what to create more of in my life, but the constant checking out of Pins doesn’t leave room for me to get to the creating part — there are soooo many ideas to chose from, I become stalled in the looking at all the great ideas, and don’t always get to the action part.
Though to give myself a break — my Christmas cracker template came from a Pin on How to Make Christmas Crackers. (Check)
They say confession is good for the soul. Here’s mine. Drum roll please….
I think it might be my Netflix and Shomi addiction (Oh. and Pinterest too) that is stealing ‘Christmas time to get everything done with a sense of joy and peace’ away. Oh. And The VOICE too. Thank goodness the finale was Tuesday night. Did you see it? Jordan Smith is AMAZING!
Ooops. I digress.
Back to my confession.
I have a feeling, okay make it a knowing, that I am allowing my busy days at work to steal my sense of grace and calm. I am allowing ‘tired’ to be my excuse for not diving into the things I truly love to do when it’s not that I’m really tired, it’s just that I need to breathe, relax and do something that feeds my sense of grace and calm — and watching mindless shows on Netflix or Shome or TV or Pinning countless ideas on things to create to make Christmas perfect — does not cut it!
So, now that I’ve confessed, it’s time to connect back to what I need more of in my life without stressing myself out about what I need to do to create the more I want.
I commit to treating my world, my being, myself with grace and calm in all things.
I commit to doing the things I know enhance my sense of grace and calm and to stop doing the things I use to escape taking responsibility for creating grace and calm throughout my being in everything I do.
Whew! That feels better.
Now, to make that list of the gifts I need to buy! But wait. that’s one of the things that bothers me about Christmas. The pressure to buy and spend. I want to create a simpler, kinder, more graceful experience. Maybe this year, I will fulfill on my wish to make a donation in the name of everyone I love and leave the gift giving to Santa!
Now there’s a plan. 🙂
I decided today to dive back into past blog posts to see what was happening on this day in years past.
On December 15th, 2009, I wrote about my eldest daughter coming home for Christmas.
I could write the same post today. She is flying in at noon for a visit!
I am so happy.
When C.C. asked me what I wanted for Christmas, this was my answer. To have my eldest daughter come home for a few days before Christmas.
She and her fiance will be here in January, so it’s not like I’m not going to see her soon, but, it didn’t feel the same. It just didn’t settle well within me that I would not be able to wrap my arms around her and hold her against my heart and tell her how much I love her, before Christmas, not in the New Year.
Sure, she knows I do, love her. She knows I think of her often, but for my heart with its yearning to hold her near, to hear her laughter and see her warm loving smile, to feel her presence lighting up our home, bringing her home for Christmas is the best gift ever.
Though, she may not be as delighted as I am. It snowed last night. Lots! C.C. who was playing in his weekly pool tournament, took an hour to drive home last night instead of the 20 minutes it should have taken.
The roads are snow covered. The sky is dark and the world is soft and quiet.
It is what I love about fresh snowfall the most. The quietness of the world around me. The pristine nature of the lawn laid out in snow.
For Alexis, coming from Vancouver, the snow may not be such a welcome sight. But for me, having my daughter home and a beautiful fresh snowfall all at the same time — that’s perfection!
And from my blog databank, here is the post I wrote on Saturday, December 15th, 2007, the year I started writing on my first blog at Recover Your Joy.
Saturday morning. Lazy. Sleepy. Up early. Back to bed. Brunch. Back to bed. Grey skies. Chilly air. Curled up reading the newspaper in bed.
Perfect day.
And it’s Christmas. That time when spirits rise and emotions lift us into that time and space where hearts connect. Where giving opens us up to receiving that which we cherish the most — love, peace, faith, hope, joy.
C.C. and I are going shopping today. He’s not too fond of Christmas shopping. Me, I love it. I love the crowds, the lights, the music playing, the decorations. I love the purpose of it. The searching for that perfect something to give that perfect someone. The feeling of it. Of being connected to an event that was inspired over 2000 years ago with one child’s birth. In celebrating that event we strive to embrace the significance of a moment in time when we are connected through all that is true and beautiful and harmonious in our lives.
I love Christmas.
The question is: What brings significance to you this time of year? The gifts or the time spent thinking and doing for people who are special to you? Are you creating perfect moments to cherish the special people in your life?
My father loved music. An avid collector, he had over 2,000 LPs (for the younger set those are the big vinyl records that are making a comeback). 🙂 He kept his collection organized by artist in alphabetical order with a special section just for Christmas Music.
Throughout my teens, we lived in southern Germany. Heintje was a young boy with the voice of an angel who was one of my father’s favourites. He would play him again and again and again, always commenting on the clarity of his voice, the sharpness of his enunciation as if he had just discovered him all over again. My father was always enthusiastic in his passions.
Kling Glöckchen klingelingeling was one of his favourites.
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