Home alone, house is relatively tidy, lights and flowers and other pretty stuff still around the place. I keep hoping that if I can just relax and let it seep in that I'll be magically infused with the spirit of the season (as we understand it).
I am trying to reflect on the past week and understand why this time of year makes so many of us so nutty and unhappy. Every year I vow not to be caught up by the commercialism, rat-race shopping, over-indulging, etc. But then, once those lights go on, the charming decorations are all over the place, my wonderful family, friends and coworkers being extra wonderful...I'm poised to swan dive straight down that rabbit hole again.
It's really hard to leave my money-equals-love feelings of inadequacy behind when the TV is insisting that if he really loved me, there would have been a car with a bow on it in the driveway Christmas morning (Oooh MY...if they only knew HIM!). What absolute crap - but here I am talking about it nonetheless. It's so entangled not only with the relentless messages from Madison Ave. but even from the very Christmas story the churchy types are vigorously defending right about now. I mean, how DID the three kings show their love and respect? Yeah, it wasn't with a nice card or a loaf of nut bread. So if money actually is the expression of adoration, how does one with little money express the depth and breadth of boundless love they feel? How can one know, without a doubt, it has been communicated and represented when the cultural norm is toward the most lavish possible. (That's what credit cards are for, yo?!)
I'm rambling and probably a little tired. I know that showing love and acceptance 365 days a year is more authentic and valuable than a velvet box or a set of car keys one day a year. That's why I'm here, to lay it bare and take a new and more spiritually aware view of things.
Peace in me - peace in you. That's what love really means.
Interesting things to think of... I've felt and thought many times like you've discussed here.
ReplyDelete'Love' is slippery to pin down or define. But having been rich and poor and loved and not loved, I've come to define it as my action within my means for the welfare of another.
(It is action for my own welfare, too, for that matter, as I'm learning in Al-Anon. This may be most important of all: respecting and caring for myself in order to be fit for respecting and caring for others.)
Action for the welfare of another can involve a gift of a Lexus or money or gold or myrrh :) or anything at all. It's not a thing or any one thing. Maybe love is a way of life instead, or a way of being, or a spirituality... I'm thinking about this, too... Love to me is simply mindful of others' welfare mostly and is evidenced by generosity rather than means and show.
In any event, I'll happily accept a Camaro please. Old or new. :) !