Holiday Season Survival Kit!

It’s one of those typical ‘Watch out! Winter’s coming!’ kind of days. Sitting in my office, I look to the left and watch traffic moving quickly along the four lanes of what is the main artery from one end of the city to the other. A grey day….damp and cold…thick with moisture from the falling snow….reminiscent of so many other such days in my long and wonderful life!

It’s that time of year again, when we are so easily drawn into eating too much, drinking more than we care to remember and spending money that we don’t have. That time of year when we seem to get caught up in all the things that we swore, last year, we’d never do again. And then – poof!... like magic! – it’s all over and when we look back, we discover that we were barely conscious as we engaged. How does that happen?????

I’ve created a Holiday Season Survival Kit; a simple way for me to remember to stay connected to myself and redesign how I move through this time of year. It’s intended to help me stay real, stay connected and to remember to love myself at least as much as I want others to know I love them. An over-extended Mom, an impatient daughter and an unavailable partner are not what I want to create for memories from Christmas 2007.

My fondest memories were never about the ‘thing’ I got but were about the people I was with; the way we laughed and played cards or Monopoly for hours at a time. I remember shopping with my Mom, the best part of which was always the time we took to have lunch together where Christmas music played in the background and we hummed along. I remember the years when there was someone new at the table because they couldn’t make it home that year; and other times when someone who had always been there, no longer was.

No matter which Christmas it was, it was always about the people. Including people; welcoming people; making time for and spending time with people. Long after the gifts were put aside, the people remained.

This year, my commitment to myself is to remember who I am and what holds meaning for me; and to invite others in my life to do the same. As much as old rituals and habits may remind us of who we have been, the creation of new ones may be the invitation for us to discover who else we can become.

Breathing is good…..