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Sunday Letter, Dec.20th: A Christmas Letter
Good Morning,
I am often tempted to skip ahead. Like this morning, it is tempting to write to you about the year in review. To tell you my hopes for 2021. I always loved those news stories between Christmas and New Years where they tell you all that happened. As a child, when a year seemed so long, I would watch them on our black and white tv and marvel at what I had forgotten.
But to talk to you about that this week would be like skipping Christmas. I do not want to jump ahead to the idea of a New Year, and miss savouring this season before us now.
Even though I have spent years working on savouring, and taking things a step at a time I still have a tendency to neglect the present. To love what is. To be there for myself and recognize the good, the beauty, the joy of the moments. I so often want to skip to the next step, the next thing that is about the happen. I never take enough time to celebrate one thing before another fills the space in my head and my heart.
So often I forget to savour. But really is there any point in being ready for the magi before the baby is born? I need to take the time to love what is because there shall also be time to love what comes, when it comes.
It is not about mindfulness or being in the moment. The world talks about that a lot. For me it is about being in the seasons of time, those hours and days that surround the moments. A season of time is a special thing. It is a time when the berry is ripe, or the birds are flocking, or the lights are sparkling. Each year is full of them.
This morning is a time to be here in this season.
There is the beauty of my simple Christmas tree strung only with a few white lights. It tells me that this is the time. It tells me to turn on the lights and feel the glow.
I love the feeling of this season. It comes with promise and hope. It reminds me of the importance of kindness in our lives. I too feel overwhelmed at times but I see those lights on that tree, that grew on the side of the road, and it is a tender reminder of the importance of simplicity.
When I was younger I had ideas about how the holidays should be. Now I just let them be.
This year, in particular, it is vital to love what is as we gather in our very small circles, and visit others virtually.
Visiting virtually has become a routine in our house. My husbands' cousin from Lansing, Michigan is a regular visitor in our house. I hear his voice in the living room sometimes a couple of times a week. I love the way he say's "Hey Deanne" when I walk in the room. I love the way he reminds me of my father in law. I love that we get to see him and get to know him though he lives far away.
Every Sunday my six sisters visit via zoom. It feels as if the seven of us are in Mom's kitchen. It is hard to get the chance to talk even though we talk about not much. We talk in a way that we never have before with all of us together. We know more about each others' children and daily lives than we have for years. It's precious. It might be virtual to someone else but it is very real to me. I like being with them. I like knowing what they are reading and what they are having for supper.
Just last January one of my goals for the year was to learn how to use zoom so I could interview people for the Harbour Masterclass. Now it feels so familiar. When we set out with intention, sometimes we have no idea where that intention will take us or how it might be needed. In the last year I have met and talked with so many wonderful people virtually and I am grateful for it.
Enjoy this season, and know that I am enjoying it too.
May your week have comfort and joy, may it be merry and bright, and may you have a little tree that lights your way.
Thank you for being there, for being one of the lights on my tree,
Deanne
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