Advent and Family

During this week of Advent my theme is "family love and joy". Most of the joy of the season is spontaneous and un-planable, but I do these three things to create the conditions:

• Take care of myself so I can be calm and present for the spontaneous joy when it arises.
• Take the time to consider what others- friends and family- will want most this season. In other words, I become less self-focused and more generous in all ways. 
• Be respectful, patient, and kind (no matter how stressed  I feel).

These are obviously year-round aspirations, but I need a strict reminder now, because everything begins to seem so important: I must get this right, and it must happen now. (Do other people feel this way, or am I a crazy person?)

Agenda this week:
1. Daily meditation:
Meditation can be anything you want it to be. I don't need anything very structured- I just need to take time to center myself. I take a few minutes of quiet time to sip my coffee, write in my journal, and think about what is planned today and how I intend to behave.

2. Card-writing practice:

I make my own cards with a painting and an online program, then print them as photo postcards. People enjoy cards because they are pretty and personal. I especially enjoy getting cards with a brief hand-written note, but this year I wrote a "form letter" because I had a lot of information to convey.

Each day this week, after meditation, I plan to address a card or two and send them on their way with love.

3. Make simple gifts:

Gifts are one way to express love for family and friends. Remember that gifts come in many forms. Emerson said, “The only gift is a portion of thyself.”



Every gift is loaded with meaning, and so giving requires mindfulness. Finding the "perfect gift" requires that I take the time to get into the other person's shoes and think about what would be most meaningful and appreciated by this particular person at this particular time. Of coarse, the "perfect gift" is a mostly unattainable goal, but on the other hand, "It's the thought that counts" is a saying that only works if I have given it some actual thought.

I've been putting off gift shopping this year, and that's got to stop. I've decided to test out my Inner Synergy Building experiment this week for GIFTS:

Engage my mind: Create a clear vision- I will make or find the gifts that best suit each person in my family.

Engage my heart: Find the love component. I want my gifts to cause smiles! I might need to make some phone calls to puzzle out what those gifts might be.
Engage my spirit: Choose a mantra: Gifts + heart
Engage my body: Be prepared. Make my list and my budget. Schedule times to shop and times to create. Gather all my supplies.

Start a fire: Mentally review my vision, repeat my mantra, remember the love, and give my body full attention as I move forward with action.

4. Decorate the tree:

The Christmas tree is a mythic symbol of life, hope, and knowledge. We always have a tree, but... we are travelling north this Christmas to a rental that's big enough to hold our whole family, and we weren't planning to bring a tree. My son heard that, and insisted that we have to have a tree! So when my daughter was home this weekend we picked out a tree, small enough to fit in the trunk.

Our tree is in the living room now, with lights but no ornaments. On Christmas Eve the tree will arrive, and all of my family will add the ornaments they bring from homes all over the country. We will put on Christmas music and decorate with chaos and happy arguing (that’s just our style).