I know this is kind of late, but it’s still the holidays so here is my Christmas/Holiday notes…
Its funny how this time of year passes. Once upon a time, I used to look forward to these days. Decorations were never a chore, and snow was something to be loved not feared. As we grow older, things creep in the way of this joy. Too many meetings to make, too many things to prepare for. Dinners to be made, family to be accommodated… travel etc. The past three years for me, each season has been on its own marked by changes in my life. Some may be small, some may be large.
2003 – This marked the first holiday of spousal freedom. Not like I had a spouse the previous years, but LEGALLY, I was free this year. This was incidentally the last year I decorated and I did this alone as well.
2004 – The first Christmas spent alone (literally). I had just moved into my home in July. I didn’t decorate this year; I had no passion for it.
2005 – The first Christmas spent with company. Tony came out to visit me and we did essentially what we wanted to do all weekend long. We visited friends and family and gamed all weekend. I didn’t decorate this year either, save for the prelit Christmas tree I dragged out of the closet.
I miss the passion of Christmas. It was the season I LIVED for. Prior to 2003, I used to craft wreaths and trees and garlands for people. I used to decorate with joy (well ok untangling those lights was a bitch, but that’s an entirely different story). I used to scent my home in the spirit of Christmas with its fragrances of cinnamon, apple, pine…
Christmas spirit is something that I think, is a part of the child in you. The one who looked at the beautiful lights and smelled the scents and tasted the food and thought, THIS is what life is… This child didn’t care that the colors on the tree didn’t match but each ornament had a story, each present beheld our life’s wish, each morning was met with a strange fervor because SANTA was coming.
For me, I used to have this passion even as an adult. I guess I’m lucky in that respect because I’ve not lost the imagination and fascination of the Christmas that I knew as a child. But my Christmas or holiday spirit seems to be resting. I hope she comes back soon, because frankly… I miss her. Maybe next year I will be overflowing with such joy that not only will she be back, she will be quietly tugging on my heart all year long preparing me for the pinnacle of a years life celebrated with love, culminating in the overflowing joy of the season.
For now, I have been given a small gift in a “glimpse” of this spirit as believe it or not, I sampled some Christmas teas and read the boxes that have these lovely quotes. Celestial Seasonings has such a good idea in that they foster a sense of peace and inspiration on their packaging of their teas. I know it sounds corny but I look forward to reading these quotes and such. And believe it or not, today they have done what I thought impossible… they gave me a glimpse of the Christmas spirit in me. So I know she hasn’t left entirely, she’s just vacationing; perhaps in sunny Florida :D
And now the quotes and such:
We never know how high we are,
Till we are called to rise;
And then, if we are true to plan,
Our statures touch the skies
~Emily Dickinson
Every piece of the universe, even the tiniest little snow crystal, matters somehow. I have a place in the patter, and so do you.
~ T.A. Barron
Creativity demands nothing less than all you have. Talent alone is never enough
~Erica Jong
There are souls in this world which have the gift of finding joy everywhere and of leaving it behind them when they go.
~Frederick William Faber
Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.
~Victor Hugo
Mix a little foolishness with your prudence: it’s good to be silly at the right moment
~Horace
A True Home
A roof to keep out the rain. Four walls to keep out the wind. Floors to keep out the cold. Yes, but home is more than that. It is the laugh of a baby, the song of a mother, the strength of a father. Warmth of loving hearts, light from happy eyeys, kindness, loyalty, comradeship. Home is first school…for the young ones where they learn what is right, what Is good, and what is kind. Where they go for comfort when they are hurt or sick. Where joy is shared and sorrow eased. Where fathers and mothers are respected and loved. Where children are wanted. Where the simplest food is good enough for kings because it is earned. Where money is not so important as loving-kindness. Where even the teakettle sings from happiness. THAT is home…
~Ernestine Schumann-Heink
The Magic of Childhood
Know you what it is to be a child? It is to be something very different from the man of today. It is to have a a spirit yet streaming…It is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief; it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear; it is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its own soul…
~Francis Thompson
A Holiday Toast
Let us toast twice. First, to the older generation: May your days come to be many, full of comfort and understanding. May they be spent knowing that those days past have held a completeness uncommon and unknown to many, and that ever detail of your being continues in the lives of those who follow. To the younger generation: May we accept these gifts, knowing that they are of this tradition, of this old-fashioned courage, of ethics, and that they can be carried along forever like rustic relics or they can be worn as wings. Let us wear them as wings.
~Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge
The dreams of childhood…its airy fables, its graceful, beautiful, humane, impossible adornments of the world beyond; so good, to be believed in once, so good to be remembered when outgrown.
~Charles Dickens
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