ManicDDaily

Didn't we just do that? (Sure--a YEAR ago!)

I am having an amazingly difficult time feeling “Christmasy” this year.

I have blamed it on the commercialization of the holiday, the dispiriting events in the world, the weather.

I suspect, however, that some of my disconnect comes simply from the way that aging speeds up time:  as in Christmas Again!?  Didn’t we just go through all that? 

There’s also the problem that, at the moment, there are few small children in my life.  Putting aside the specific connections between young children and Christmas, one of the great pleasures of parenting is that part of your “job” is to spend pleasant/instructive time with your kids: at Christmas, that means time spent caroling, cookie-baking, tree-decorating.

It’s a bit harder to justify taking time from the day job to sing to yourself!

Okay, so you could do these things for others! Your community!  Your friends!  Aging relatives!  Your somewhat grown children!

Yes.  But a bit of Christmasy feeling is required even to jump-start those impulses.

My task, here on December 21, is to (i) start going through the motions, and (ii) stop going through the motions.

This means to simply MAKE myself to do some Christmasy things, for example, to go out and get a tree.  (I know I know.)

But also to stop in the midst of these Christmasy things and to understand that I don’t have to actually do all so much, replacing some of the propulsion of compulsion (i.e. hurry up with the tree already!) with simple, visceral enjoyment (as in wow, doesn’t that balsam smell wonderful.)   

To be a bit of a young child, as it were.  Having a pleasant/instructive time.

Probably some cookies would help.

This entry was posted on December 21, 2011 at 7:38 am and is filed under Christmas, Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: christmas cookies help, getting Christmas spirit, lack of Christmas spirit, letting go of propulsion of compusion, manicddaily