The Peace of Lingering

I like change and endings as little as anyone else. OK, maybe less. But there’s something about lingering on these days at the end of the year, trying to squeeze in the fullness that I love.

I don’t do a lot for the holidays, but I do turn on the lights and light the candles. My little red and white Mid-Winter Trees often turn into Valentine trees and twinkle their way through the Winter. ahhhh. Reading. Twinkling. Tea. Writing. Snuggling inside. What’s not to like?

Winter, if we allow it, can be a lesson in presence, lingering in the moment until it’s done. Then you turn the lights out and go to bed. Peace, my friends, through the short grey days and the long, starry nights. Linger in earthly Peace.

Peace of Short Days with Lots to Do

The start to Winter Holidays were long cold nights when everyone was crowded together inside and no one went out but to hunt and care for the animals. And in days when the days were not about gifting and more about celebrating and dancing (ok, and probably drinking), the holidays were probably more fun.

However we got to lavish and wildly expensive gift giving, I’m not excited.

This year I’m scaling back. I say this who was always a lousy giver of gifts! I’m giving gifts to the kids and the adults are getting donations to important organizations that will change our world. And suddenly, I feel so much more generous. It makes me happy. It makes me feel useful.

It also lessens the amount of crazy running that I do. And who wouldn’t celebrate that? And truth be told, it shifts my sense of loss of family to a connection with the wider world. I have family, whom I adore and of whom I am fiercely proud and for whom I’m incredibly grateful. And now I have a world that I feel responsible to, as well.

The holidays are wonderful if we fill them up with people we love and fun events. They become less so when we stuff them with assignments. Whatever you ponder during your holy days, why not give yourselves some down time to do that. Mull some cranberry juice, or some wine, light some candles and settle in.

Peace is in the beauty, not the crazed running around. Find yourself a lovely slice of Peace and consider your world — all its beauty — and all the places you’re going to use your powers for good!

We’re needed. And so is the Peace we bring, in Winter’s lovely short days and beautiful long nights and all the rest of the year, too. Let’s Peace.

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