[public] Xmas Musings
Not to everyone's taste, so cut for kindness. Note that this is a public post.
I'm watching all the emphasis on family-family-family and love-love-love --
and remembering how it's been in various years when I had neither.
The pervasiveness of Xmas as a cultural phenomenon has been remarked upon elsewhere and much more eloquently than I can here, so whether you are Christian or not, this time of year has a pervasive "oh JOY!!" thing going on that sometimes folks just aren't feeling. This piece is for those folks.
Free advice --
Stay with what you are actually feeling, then find a way to make it useful to SOMEbody. No matter how bad you've got it, someone else has it worse -- so find a way to share something. A meal, a smile, a kind word. SOMEthing.
Don't have kind words right now? Shovel someone's sidewalk, preferably an aged someone.
Don't have a lot of money? Homeless shelters can always use hands to cook and feed. So can nursing homes, foster homes, animal shelters, hostels and hospices. Show up and ask "how can I help?" Being useful to someone else gives you a place within the community, even if there isn't anybody in your personal sphere right now -- and that can help you get through the worst days of the year. Someone very wise born on this day once reportedly said, "As you've done to the least of these, you've done to Me." I would suggest that as you have done FOR the least of these, you will have done FOR that godform is also a correct construction -- so do something for somebody else.
Enforced gaiety can mask deep sadness -- yes, I know it feels like a lie. It's a social lie we tell each other to keep the world going around -- cause everybody's got their own rasher of trouble, and nobody really wants to hear about yours. So practice being kinder than you think you 'have' to be -- cause EVERYbody has their own rasher of trouble, whether you know it or not.
"It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness." Light a candle for your future, light a candle to honor your past, light a candle to give thanks for right this very day, for the present that is yours. Even if you don't feel like it. ::grin:: Maybe especially if you don't feel like it.
Some folks make progress, some folks make excuses. Be part of the solution.
And here's to a brighter and better New Year!!
I'm watching all the emphasis on family-family-family and love-love-love --
and remembering how it's been in various years when I had neither.
The pervasiveness of Xmas as a cultural phenomenon has been remarked upon elsewhere and much more eloquently than I can here, so whether you are Christian or not, this time of year has a pervasive "oh JOY!!" thing going on that sometimes folks just aren't feeling. This piece is for those folks.
Free advice --
Stay with what you are actually feeling, then find a way to make it useful to SOMEbody. No matter how bad you've got it, someone else has it worse -- so find a way to share something. A meal, a smile, a kind word. SOMEthing.
Don't have kind words right now? Shovel someone's sidewalk, preferably an aged someone.
Don't have a lot of money? Homeless shelters can always use hands to cook and feed. So can nursing homes, foster homes, animal shelters, hostels and hospices. Show up and ask "how can I help?" Being useful to someone else gives you a place within the community, even if there isn't anybody in your personal sphere right now -- and that can help you get through the worst days of the year. Someone very wise born on this day once reportedly said, "As you've done to the least of these, you've done to Me." I would suggest that as you have done FOR the least of these, you will have done FOR that godform is also a correct construction -- so do something for somebody else.
Enforced gaiety can mask deep sadness -- yes, I know it feels like a lie. It's a social lie we tell each other to keep the world going around -- cause everybody's got their own rasher of trouble, and nobody really wants to hear about yours. So practice being kinder than you think you 'have' to be -- cause EVERYbody has their own rasher of trouble, whether you know it or not.
"It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness." Light a candle for your future, light a candle to honor your past, light a candle to give thanks for right this very day, for the present that is yours. Even if you don't feel like it. ::grin:: Maybe especially if you don't feel like it.
Some folks make progress, some folks make excuses. Be part of the solution.
And here's to a brighter and better New Year!!