First Day of Christmas

Today is Christmas, but only the first day of Christmas (what Norwegians call 1. juledag). This is the start of the twelve-day festal tide adopted by the Christian Church: In 567 C.E. church leaders proclaimed the days from December 25 to Epiphany as a sacred, festive season.

Now my preparations are finished, and I can relax with my family, do a puzzle, eat, drink, and generally wallow in joyful abandon.

In some old traditions, this whole season is seen as a sort of Sabbath: Prepare ahead of time and then spend the Twelve Days doing as little work as possible. It's a good time to rest, reflect, and find peace within.

Agenda:

1. Christmas Retreat Brainstorm for Renewal

2. Love reading

3. Love plans

4. Open Gifts

5. Put Baby Jesus in the manger

6. Christmas dinner and pudding

1. Christmas Retreat Brainstorm for Renewal:

I try to renew all four dimensions of my life (body, mind, heart, and spirit), as Stephen Covey taught: I spend about an hour each day on a combination of physical, mental, and spiritual regeneration activities, plus work to improve my social skills and relationships. 

During this first part of Christmas I review one dimension at a time, and today I will take a deep look at how I nurture my social skills and love relationships.

I define Love as practicing the habits of listening, generosity, patience, care, and kindness with my community, my family, and the earth. 

What is the condition of my marriage, family, and friend relationships?  What do they need of me this next year?

With whom am I struggling or feeling distant, and how can I open to healing our relationship?  

When problems and conflicts arise, do I try to resolve them in a timely fashion?

Do I keep my word, follow through with my responsibilities, speak truth, listen well, and show loyalty? What can I improve? How and when can I be kinder? 

Where in my life do I need to be more generous - giving freely of my time, energy, love, possessions, encouragement, laughter, hospitality, service, and forgiveness? 

How can I better love and care for myself? Can I manage my personality quirks with love and respect? 

How can I better show my love for the earth, for creation, and for God?

3. Love reading:

I'm reading again from the Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook, by Margaret Cullen and Gonzalo Brito Pons (2015). I got it after realizing that mindfulness might be the key to gaining the equanimity I crave. This is supposedly an "8-week program for Improved Emotional Regulation and Resilience". I'm going to take it much slower than 8-weeks.

My goal with this workbook is to find equanimity no matter what arises; to counter the effects of stress and build my resilience; to become physically stronger and resistant to illness; and to be happier, wiser, and more hopeful.

"When we're scattered and live mostly on autopilot, we're more likely to become overwhelmed by strong emotions and to habitually repeat deeply rooted patterns of emotional reactivity. Without the spaciousness of mindful awareness, we become slaves to our own patterns."

Chapter 2 is Emotions - What Drive Us, and What Drive Us Astray. They compare the work of cultivating mindfulness to that of caring for a garden: The first step is "...to become familiar with the nature, function, and dynamics of the emotional seeds within us. By looking deeply at how emotions work, we can realize how related they are to the reality we perceive and inhabit, and how much freedom we actually have to change ingrained emotional habits."   

4. Love plans:

At the end of each year I take a deep look at my self-renewal practices - how I nurture the physical, mental, social, and  spiritual parts of myself - and make some plans for the new year.

My ideas for social and love renewal in 2025 are:

• Work slowly through the Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook, and practice equanimity and patience habits.
• Continue to care for and nurture my grandsons and their self-discovery, and work on co-regulation skills together.
• Set some intentions for self-nurturance and building resilience.
• Continue to nurture my deepest friendships with monthly moon gatherings on zoom, and some in-person gatherings when the weather gets better.
• Find new and creative ways to lead my community in Earthcare. Open to new relationships and affinities with those who are working on active hope.

5. Open gifts:

We are going to my daughter's home this morning to open our presents, sit by the fire, eat a "brunch charcuterie", fruit, cookies, and drink coffee and mimosas.

We celebrate the birth of Jesus by giving gifts to those we love.

6. Put Baby Jesus in the manger:

Of course, Baby Jesus must arrive in His crib this morning! 

I believe that we all have that of God within, and I generally picture it as Light, but the Christ Child is another wonderful image. At Advent, I am a baby again, waiting for birth into wisdom and grace.

7. Christmas dinner and pudding:

We will regather at our house in the afternoon for a big ham and potatoes feast.

After our feast we will reheat the Christmas pudding I made a month ago, by steaming it again for about an hour, then slide it out of the pudding basin onto a plate.

Then we will put some brandy into a metal ladle (about 1/4-cup), heat it over a candle flame until it steams a bit, set it on fire with a match, and pour the flaming brandy over the warm pudding.

This is really worth the effort! We turn the lights out and the blue flame dances all over the pudding for a minute or more.