Channeling Your Inner Child

Believe me when I say, December has always been a month that exceeds all my expectations.  Hopes, dreams and wishes are born here in this cold, not too frigid air where ice skating rinks are not yet open outside, nor have the shovels been bent and disfigured from the weight of repeated snows.  Of course, we have those things to look forward to here in the Great Lakes region.
But ahhhh.  The lights, the electricity in the air, bundled bodies with fancy scarves and new coats, shopping lists and boozy office parties.  Why is fun so stressful! No, not everyone gets stressed out during the holidays.  Some people manage to stay above it all, or they opt out entirely.  I actually have sworn to do both of these things in winters' past but never managed to accomplish either.

MMmmmn. The cookies, the baking smells in the air, as flour gets pulled out of the pantry and chocolate sits in the top of a double boiler.  The hors d'oevres, the cameraderie.  Ultimately I am not sure how Christmas has become this huge commercial commodity when in real time the things that most folks cherish and remember are the lights, the sensory overload, the warm, fuzzy friendships, some dating back years, some newly formed and the people we call family who remind us of who we really are.

The need.  That is what grabs me in a stanglehold  each year. How blessed I am and how many have very little to lean on.  So I buy toys, or CTA passes, pick a family, shop for some warm gloves at Target or bake cookies for church.  The endless list of those who have so little...those whose needs will never, ever be totally fufilled--these thoughts haunt me at the end of a warm, wonderful day. So for the least of us...those with nothing, people struggling to survive---for those who are weakest right now-- try to be responsible to help them in some small way.  Don't just fund a Christmas project and be a Christmas angel in an imperfect world, but make a commitment to do something ongoing in 2011!  Happy New Year, Angels.  Make love the first thing on your resolution list!