These are difficult days. Christmas is just around the corner and all I can do is to run around like a headless chicken to buy pyjamas for my sister or a sweatshirt for my niece. Christmas should be a time of withdrawal from our everyday life, of silence, of moments spent with the people we love. It should be a time of tea, blanket and fireplace (as well as huge meals), of evenings spent watching the lights on the tree while outside it is raining or snowing.
And yet, we complicate our lives by buying gifts without thinking, distracted by the excessive consumerism. Going shopping numbs us and perhaps prevents us from thinking about our weaknesses and sense of loss for the people we love that are no longer with us.
The other day Facebook reminded me of a sentence I posted a few years ago. It was something like: “I’m one of those people who would like to fall asleep on December 20th and wake up on January 7th.” I thought: poor me. During our life we gain years of good and bad experiences. Unfortunately, sometimes the bad experiences make us suffer so much that the only thing we want is not to feel anything. We are too afraid to feel the anguish again, to cry, to sense a lump in our throat and emptiness in our heart. But you know what? It is a pity to react like this, because life is also and, above all, to feel. If we smother our sadness, we will be doing nothing else but magnifying it and changing it into anger, resentment and frustration.
Most children have not had enough time to gain so many bad experiences and, therefore, they face Christmas with joy, wide-eyed and convinced that, as if by magic, all their wishes come true under the tree.
This year we could try not to live Christmas as a torture. We could behave like them. We can do that, believe me, the important thing is to let go of all the anger, resentment and frustration. Let’s light up the tree, let’s make the nativity scene, let’s put candles all around, let’s remain in silence and, if we feel sadness for those who are no longer with us or for the goals we unfortunately could not reach, let us feel it. There is nothing wrong with feeling sad for a moment. It is temporary and liberating. Once the negative emotion has been released, let’s focus on our heart and all the love we can feel. Let’s give that vibe off as if we were a radio antenna. Love will call more love. And, maybe, we’ll be able to look at the world wide–eyed and convince ourselves that all our wishes will come true under the tree.
Merry Christmas!