The Joy and Sorrow of Christmas.

Originally posted by Mr Headshot
I like holidays. I like what they should be at least. I work in retail. I work on christmas and christmas eve. I hate christmas music. I like the spirit the holiday itself stands for.

I enjoy getting presents, sure, but there is no better feeling for me than to look up at the sky on christmas night and smell that cold fresh air and look at the clear moon and to know that you're carrying on a tradition that is, in some ways, older than you can comprehend.
I like christmas because I love seeing my lady's face (she's a christmas fanatic). She puts me in the spirit.
I love the warmth of a christmas tree with lights and the potpourri of evergreen. I love the stories those trees tell. Stories about kids growing and life moving in short and eternal circles.

I hate being around other people on christmas because they're always in a hurry and they're always rude. This comes from a few years in retail. It kind of seals the deal when you get told your life is worthless because your store ran out of turkey.
Merry Christmas eh?

I may be romantic, but I think everybody needs something to be romantic about sometimes. Everybody needs to know that there's still hope and there's still some kind of reason and flow to the world. That's what christmas is to me. It's a tether connecting us through innumerable years back to fire and fear of the dark. It's beautiful for what it is.

Nice!

Merry Christmas (although it doesn't HAVE to be merry!)

and Happy New Year (even though it's sure to have it's ups and downs too!).

What I like is how at the end of the drama, there's nothing left BUT happiness in the end. Unless we WANT to be unhappy, of course.. you know, we're still free to choose.



Best Regards,

Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. (by text messaging, while on the fly!)

I try to take it easy. Yes, I am spending the day with my family. Is OK. I would love to spend it with the one I really love. However, that person is neither here or desiring to be with me...well. There you go...

Originally posted by ChiForce
I try to take it easy. Yes, I am spending the day with my family. Is OK. I would love to spend it with the one I really love. However, that person is neither here or desiring to be with me...well. There you go...

aww... that's too bad. a lot of people feel that way and it always sucks.

I'm going to hang out with family later. Right now I have to rake and try to psyche myself up to clean even though it's a holiday. Kinna boring.

Originally posted by ChaosMagician

Originally posted by ChiForce
I try to take it easy. Yes, I am spending the day with my family. Is OK. I would love to spend it with the one I really love. However, that person is neither here or desiring to be with me...well. There you go...

aww... that's too bad. a lot of people feel that way and it always sucks.

I'm going to hang out with family later. Right now I have to rake and try to psyche myself up to clean even though it's a holiday. Kinna boring.

The bright side is that I am not working for my former retail management job. Let's just say for the first time in 5 years, I didn't have to open my store at 5 am in the morning on Black Friday. I didn't have to stay late on Christmas Eve in order to prepare for the after Christmas sales on the 27th.. The store does not open on Christmas day. For the first time in 5 years, I actually enjoy the holidays.... Going to meditate tonight and tomorrow morning. Looking forward to whatever visions and dreams I may have.

Starting in the morning, let us recreate the world, as if shining a new light of reason, and spirit, and of love.

Rudolf - reporting on arrival back at the NP with the rest of my fellow reindeer, having born witness to unending possibility all the way around the circle.

May your coming days be merry and bright. and may you recapture, whatever may have been lost, and rediscover, for yourself, the joy on the far side of all your suffering and sorrows, and then at long last have the courage to open your gift, placed lovingly beneath your particular branch on the tree of life. May all your prayers be answered. Blessed also for those who mourn, you shall be comforted, and blessed are the meek in spirit for they shall inherit the earth of manifestation. And blessed are the peacemakers, for you shall be called sons of God.

---
Christmas Morning

Ok, so, now that we got that over with, the only question remaining is how many times we have to say "Happy New Year" before getting fed up and ignoring the bright new future of increasing possibility, of freedom, love and life, to simply return to being a mindless automaton, working diligently, only to bring on more of the past, to keep the drama of ours lives in place and going, perpetuating themselves, never learning, firever circling in a very narrow and constrained life and way of being and thinking.

...as the small child in astonishment, starts playing with his new trainset, watching in awe as it continues to go around and around the same circle, interminably...

reply to post by NewAgeMan


The Christmas ritual is like a shot of heroin. It is designed to bring short, temporary joy and long term suffering.

And if the only way you can bring joy to your children's faces is by lying and deceiving them, well that speaks for itself...

I'm suffering now from a certain post-partem sorrow in it's wake, and still need to make some calls and connect with more people I know, not as a duty, but out of love.

So I guess I'm not really Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer after all, or at least not until I complete some unfinished Christmas business.

Sometimes it's hard, all this family stuff, to get really clear, through the sorrows, and re-discover the joy on the other side of the willingness to go through it all, but it's hard, very sorrowful.

reply to post by catwhoknows

Why "Xmas?" It still means the same thing.

The exact origin of the single letter X for Christ cannot be pinpointed with certainty. Some claim that it began in the first century AD along with the other symbols, but evidence is lacking. Others think that it came into widespread use by the thirteenth century along with many other abbreviations and symbols for Christianity and various Christian ideas that were popular in the Middle Ages. However, again, the evidence is sparse. In any case, by the fifteenth century Xmas emerged as a widely used symbol for Christmas. In 1436 Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with movable type. In the early days of printing typesetting was done by hand and was very tedious and expensive. As a result, abbreviations were common. In religious publications, the church began to use the abbreviation C for the word "Christ" to cut down on the cost of the books and pamphlets. From there, the abbreviation moved into general use in newspapers and other publications, and "Xmas" became an accepted way of printing "Christmas" (along with the abbreviations Xian and Xianity). Even Webster’s dictionary acknowledges that the abbreviation Xmas was in common use by the middle of the sixteenth century. So there is no grand scheme to dilute Christianity by promoting the use of Xmas instead of Christmas. It is not a modern invention to try to convert Christmas into a secular day, nor is it a device to promote the commercialism of the holiday season. Its origin is thoroughly rooted in the heritage of the Church. It is simply another way to say Christmas, drawing on a long history of symbolic abbreviations used in the church. In fact, as with other abbreviations used in common speech or writing (such as Mr. or etc.), the abbreviation "Xmas" should be pronounced "Christmas" just as if the word were written out in full, rather than saying "exmas." Understanding this use of Christian symbolism might help us modern day Xians focus on more important issues of the Faith during Advent, and bring a little more Peace to the Xmas Season.

reply to post by NewAgeMan


Though the sorrow may be painful, it deepens our experience, no?

The greater pain i experience, the greater i can appreciate joy.

Happy holidays NAM, may even your pain and sorrow help you appreciate the gift of life all the more