Warmth, spirit of Christmas season neede during gloomy winter months

Archive for Thursday, December 17, 2009

December 17, 2009

These recent dark days cast a similar darkness across my soul. As I grow older and stiffer, lack of warmth and light seems to affect me more. I feel like retreating into a kind of hibernation. If I could emulate a bear and find a cozy dark protected cave, I’d like to sleep away winter and awake to the longer days of sunlight and warmth. I have friends and acquaintances who flee the seasonal anguish of winter in Kansas for warmer climates. They rush to Arizona or deep southern Texas to play in the sun. Even though I don’t want to give up all the books, pictures and objects with memories in my home, I envy them. There is nothing like moving around in the sunshine, even if one perspires a bit. I must confess though that when I start feeling too sorry for myself, I call my sister who lives and works in Denver. The weather there has been spectacularly bad for as early as it is in the season. Snow on top of more snow, until a city equipped to dig out, can’t keep up.

This darkness makes the need for a brightener for the soul and the body all the more necessary. It is why we so need Christmas and its light and joy. Sometimes, I get really tired trying to get ready for Christmas. It just seems like getting gifts, decorations and cards prepared wears me down to my soul, but then when I think about what life would be like without those friends, neighbors and family to share my life and celebration, I know how dark this world and my life would be without them.

Sometimes, I think the hilarity is definitely overdone and it begins to grate on my nerves. All the jangling of coins and advertising jingles begin to make me want to scream, “Just get it over!” But, I tell myself that our economy needs the boost and all the money flowing from one pocket to another means that somebody will have a job and their family will be able to celebrate in a good way.

I hope that we find compassion and generosity flowing abundantly from our hearts for those of us who are suffering.

I hope that those who oppose any kind of aid to the sick and shivering will find it in themselves to reach out and help without making judgment. I do not believe the one whose teachings I follow asked us to judge the worthiness of whom we help. I believe that judgment of worthiness is left to a higher power than we on Earth. We are just asked to give our help and assistance when it is needed.