One Important Reason To Have A Happy Holiday
December 4, 2009
Last year at this time, I felt the press of all the undone holiday chores I was procrastinating about and grimacing at the annoying expediency of every holiday greeting card that appeared in my mailbox. This year, on the other hand, sitting by my fireplace with exactly three weeks left before Christmas, I’m well on my way to checking things off my list and enjoying every moment of it. Hand addressing my envelopes? I just might! If I can find my mailing lists on my computer, that is. I may even bake (gasp) holiday cookies. I even had an insane moment a few days ago when I considered participating in a cookie exchange. Of course, no one invites me to exchange cookies anymore because I stink at baking. And if you still don’t believe that I am filled with the holiday spirit here’s what my house looks like.
The inside is even better. Think Griswold’s with a hillbilly twist. What’s wrong with me, you ask? It’s actually what is right with me. It started when I got a call from my sister earlier this week. There was a silence on her end of the line and then she was crying. There’d been a horrible car accident in their town and two wonderful teenage school mates of her children had been killed. It’s every parent’s nightmare. I have been alternating between weeping for these people I don’t even know and being angry about the devastating injustice of it. But after I started to comprehend a thimbleful of the enormity and immediacy of their loss (which I can’t really. Not ever everever. One instant they’re walking in the back door and tracking mud through the kitchen and the next instant—-gone? Gimme my mud back. I’ll take all the mud in the world,please.Make that double mud.)
Then, with my new eyes, I looked down at myself standing in this healthy body, and at these three ornery, yet splendid teenagers of mine, who don’t always brush their teeth or hang up their towels for the thousandth time. And I looked through my new eyes at my rascal of a husband, who even peering over his reading glasses, still floats my boat after 22 years. And I felt with my new sense of touch, the World’s Greatest Dog dozing with his head on my foot under the desk. I guess you could say I got woke up! It was just the smack in the face that I needed to cure my Bah-Humbug-itis. Suddenly it occurred to me what a miracle it is that none of us are gone- We get to be here another day! Another Christmas! Another opportunity to be alive! Not like last year when I was just chronically in need of a nap and asking my husband, “Do we get our son the XBox 360 OR do we send him to college?” This year I welcome the overwhelm. Bring on the chaos and financial strain, if only for the aliveness that it sparks in me.
Comments
Got something to say?
Sign Up for Special Insider Info and Tips!
