There and Back Again

Pondering: When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow, we hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago, and etched on vacant places are half-forgotten faces of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know. (Ella Wheeler Wilcox)

In a few hours another Christmas celebration has come and gone. At my age and at this day and time, I still believe in Christmas and what it means spiritually and religiously.

Christmas, foremost will always be the birth of Christ for me. So despite common trend saying it is politically incorrect to use the word Christmas and the symbols that we’ve grown to associate with this day, December 25th will still always be Christmas to me. Jesus was born on this day and that is why we rejoice. We share gifts with each other, much like the three kings showered the babe with incense, myrrh and gold. Some folks call the holidays differently and I respect that. I call it Christmas and that is what it always will be. Does that make me culturally insensitive? Maybe to some, but I think not.

Second of all, Christmas is just the happiest season of the year. It’s the one time when people try to be nice to other people and try to do a good deed. We don’t do a lot of that lately and to do it at least once a year still make a huge difference in someone’s life. I can’t remember a Christmas when I wasn’t happy. No matter what was bothers me or worries me, they all go away on Christmas day (including this year when I suffered food poisoning on the eve of Christmas). Opening gifts and giving gifts lifts up my heart. Some people associate it with stress - stress of getting the perfect gift in time, having the money to spend, yet it’s not like that for me. Seeing people smile when they open up presents make me smile.

But I am always sad too, when Christmas day is almost over. There is a void that settles in my heart - all the shopping has been done, all the cards sent out, all the excitement of decorating and throwing parties has passed. In a week’s time, we’ll be celebrating the dawning of a new year and I will have to wait eleven months before the excitement of the season starts again. Eleven months is nothing, it feels like it lately, but it is still a wait. I still wish, after all these years that it was Christmas every day.

It’s now 11:50 p.m. - time to turn off the fireplace, the Christmas tree. All the wine’s been drank, dinner put away, left over dessert saved for another day. Outside the wind is howling. A storm passed on Christmas eve, sounds like another one is coming. With a heavy heart I bid the holidays a fond farewell and patiently - oh, so patiently - I wait for next Christmas to come.