The Present of Presence

The holiday season is upon us.

For some of us that means Christmas. For some Hanukkah. For others, Solstice. For most of us, though, it also means...work.

Consider the way we say it: The holidays are upon us. There’s an unspoken “so get busy!” at the end of that sentence.

But whatever your tradition, when you look into the heart of what it really means to you, you probably won’t find “busyness.” So how do we bridge the gap between busyness and meaning?

You know the meme with the alternate Holiday To Do List? It asks us to trade "busy" tasks for more meaningful ones, like this:

"Buy presents" becomes "Be present."
"Wrap gifts" becomes "Wrap someone in a hug."
"Send cards" becomes "Send peace."
"Make cookies" becomes "Make memories."
"Shop for food" becomes "Donate food."
"See the lights" becomes "Be the light."

That. Let's do that.

We know the world is a hectic place and there’s lots of stuff that goes on this month. But it will all feel much more, well, like a holiday even if we did one or two of those things.

This holiday season, we wish you the gift of presence. May you be present for your family, for your friends, and for whatever tradition you hold dear. And may you be present for those still, starlit moments when all those things fall silent before the dawn of new light.

Author

Complete Wellness' blogs are written by Marissa Polselli of Wordtree, LLC.