Since time immemorial the Christmas season has been (and continues to be) the most highly celebrated and lengthy holiday season of the year. During this season more time is accrued for family gatherings, socialization, gift giving and an accumulation of favorite foods on dinner tables. The warmth and love the holiday generates is enhanced through many prior weeks of psychological preparation around different themes and musical tempos.
Amid the hustle and hype, however, the changing beat of the social and technological tempo through the years became obscure. Children grow up fast. Their children even faster as quantum leaps in science and technology continue to change the entire concept of gift giving while annual family dinner table gatherings compete increasingly with pro-football games and other preferable distractions.
For years I had developed a tradition of hosting an annual Christmas brunch between approximately 9:30-11:30 a.m. that paled through time with the deaths of some and changing situations of other primary family members and guests. The trend then changed to a few Christmas family dinners as family structure and other situations continued to shift.
This year my only daughter decided to have a small brunch following her big wedding of December 13. I agreed to prepare the food and take it to their house looking forward to the small family get-together with her 15-year-old triplets and new bridegroom. After getting everything ready we all held hands around the kitchen table for prayer before the triplets each served a plate and returned to the living room to their newly unwrapped “tablets” among other gifts from Santa, the bridegroom returned to his favorite room and my daughter and I sat at the kitchen table and watched Steve Harvey special Christmas shows while eating and for the rest of the morning.
So this is Christmas – 2014! It took a lot of reassessing to accept the fact that times change!-especially over a near 90-year time span. The greatest blessing is not the gifts under the tree or amount of food on the table, but the people that were there–with the option to gather–all in good health, happy and enjoying the freedom of spending Christmas their way!
Upon returning home I stopped by to visit my dear 96-year-old neighbor with whom I had not spent time with throughout the hectic year. We got so engrossed in conversation in the warmth and comfort of her home that I forgot my 6 p.m. invitation to dinner with my next door neighbors, arriving 2 hours late at their festive table surrounded by many of our dearest friends.
Arriving home late that evening I began to analyze the entire very different day. That was it-–different! Once we make peace with different and learn to respect (respectable) differences -–especially in others we may just have solved the world’s problems–which is basically people problems.
People are different among nations, cultures, races and traditions and especially within individual families. Everything in nature is different among species and within species, whether animal, mineral, vegitable or human. Different does not necessarily mean better or worse as generally perceived and subsequently judged or feared. The miracle agent is Love. “God so loved the world . . .”
As we have apparently no remote perception of the real meaning of the word, perhaps we should explore becoming a “hollow reed from which the pith of self hath been blown…” through which God’s pure love might flow to others. But then, “Beseech ye the Lord thy God that no earthly entanglements, no worldly affections and no ephemeral pursuits will tarnish the purity or embitter the sweetness of that Grace that flows through you.”
In retrospect, this may have been my best Christmas ever. (Investigate–1-800-22UNITE)
