A while back, my eldest made an interesting post on her private blog about Christmas and Yule and the holidays in general. She was talking about how she was tired of taking flak for "keeping secular christmas" and her annoyance with professed Christians who see no problem with keeping a secular Samhain (Halloween) but don't like the shoe on the other foot... and about how her personal spiritual beliefs -- and the keeping of Yule -- are very, very private.
I have been kinda thinking about that all as I have been struggling -- not sure why -- to get what I think of as the "outgoing" part of my holiday preparations completed.. that is the cards, gifts...stuff that I send or give out. Now, as I remember my daughter characterizing the secular holidays, she included "overspending" in there somewhere, but the commercial aspects have always been relatively minimal for me. Oh, I do buy stuff... citron and nuts, flour and sugar, eggs and milk for the holiday baking and over the course of the year, lots of stuff ot make things with, but the "having to buy for" has always been a minor part for me. And this year I have not got into the baking at all, not sure why... but I did do many more cards than I had expected and they have now all been sent and the gifts to my kids and grands are on their way and I feel ... finally .. calm and relieved. I feel like I can start on the most important part, for my... that which happens here, around the hearth and at home.
A lot of this is internal stuff of course, in keeping with the nature of the season of darkness and inward-turning, of looking back, taking note, planning for the coming seasons.
I have a lot of picking up and organizing to do, some cleaning, some writing. There are projects still incomplete and others not yet started, but they will be done in this season of contemplation.
And maybe the snow will fall tomorrow (after the winds melted the last bit) and it will once again begin to feel right as well.
2 comments:
I've been finding myself in a contemplative mood lately. I expect it's the time of year. I know how you feel about having it all done, ie: gifts sent, cards done. Fortunately, living in the country we are not barraged with the frenzy of the season.
We are not "barraged" here either. In fact, in many ways it is hard for me to tell that we are THIS CLOSE to Yule and Christmas. It seems that here in our semi-rural area, most folks don't do much to decorate... I haven't even seen trees lit up in most of the houses on my nightly commute home. Yeah, there are a few "overboard" decorated yards -- out here and in Bangor -- but even in our nearest city, things seem mellow. Of course it may be the economy. I don't normally frequent shops and after Thanksgiving I put off all shopping except for absolute essentials -- groceries, gas -- until after the first week in Jan.
I guess I should modify.. we ARE BARRAGED as far as TV commercials go. Fortunately we don't have it on much, but we did last night and saw the strangest commercial, aimed at Hanukkah celebrants (of whom there are not many here in Maine!) urging ladies to make their men get a prostrate exam so they can have a "kosher prostate for Hanukkah". I kid you not... It was a really short commercial and both K and I were left in a daze, going "????" LOL
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