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It's amazing that 7 months have passed since I became your Director Sponsor and more amazing that a whole year has slipped by. I could swear that I only got about 8 months out of this year! How could another 4 have moved through without me making good use of them?
This year has three big events left: Thanksgiving, Christmas (or the appropriate Holiday for your belief), and New Year's. I read somewhere that we should "be on the lookout for mercies. The more we look for them, the more of them we will see. Blessings brighten when we count them." Seeing what is good and seeing the good in our challenges can be tough. I have to distance myself by time to find the good or the lesson or the blessing in things that often come disguised as financial setbacks, health challenges, and grief. Sometimes I have to search pretty hard to see those mercies, but I know they are there, even when I can't see them. Thanksgiving is the perfect time to begin the habit of looking. The trick is to continue the habit long after Thanksgiving is over.
A month from now will be Christmas. My good fortune this year will allow me to be with my family in California. I worry about carrying gifts or sending them ahead, who to see, and if I'll anger folks if I don't get to spend enough time with them. But when I pull away from those minute concerns I'm left with the bounty of being with folks who love me in a place that I love. It's a time to share stories and laughter, not a time to see who bought what for whom. It's also a time to allow ourselves to receive gifts of many sorts.
So many of us who do what we do for a living are natural nurturers. That's why we've chosen this profession of helping others communicate their messages to the world. We often have trouble accepting gifts, material and spiritual. I continually work on learning how to receive and I've had lots of practice this year! So many of my friends have showered me with gifts of time and friendship that I know I'll never be able to repay them. So, I have learned to pass it on. A wise mentor of mine once told me that we seldom have the opportunity to pay back those who directly affect us, but we have an obligation to pass it on to someone else. That person then passes it on to someone new and so on forever. Can you imagine the wonder if the whole world worked on that principle?
Soon after Christmas we are gifted with a New Year. What will you do with the gift? It's the time for sloughing off negative things, embracing new opportunities, and allowing ourselves to begin anew. I know of a ritual that many folks do at the end of each year. They write down each thing they want to leave behind on a small piece of paper. Then they burn the pieces of paper in a fireplace or other safe place. It's great to visualize all those negatives going up in smoke and leaving your life! I think it's a fun, symbolic way to bring in the New Year. Others believe that if you clear out old things, you leave space for the new. Why not put that idea to work and take some time to clean your clutter, erase bad habits, and forego negative thinking? The space you will create will invite new order, new habits, and new thinking. And you'll get plenty of practice at receiving the good of life.
For this holiday season and for every day, I wish you all the blessings you can count for yourselves, your families, and your friends.
