MERRY CHRISTMAS

Someone asked me-- well if we don't have religion, what do we have?

This is the perfect time to consider that question when we are in religion overload (or super blessings depending on how you see it) beginning with the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah, the ancient Roman one of Saturnalia, which although no longer exactly practiced has many similarities with Winter Solstice gatherings to bring back the sun. Immediately ahead is Christmas followed by the more recently created Kwanzaa. The big one though has to be Christmas with not only a lot of events but economic impact.

For me Christmas has meant different things at different times in my life. Some involved religion and some not. I grew up with pretty traditional Christmases which were not religious but involved Christmas trees that we cut ourselves from our own woods, always with missing branches so they had to be placed and decorated just so, lots of lights and decorations, Santa Claus, and going to Grandma's for Christmas Day dinners where all the family (cousins, aunts, uncles, great aunts and uncles) would gather. There'd be more presents, tables loaded with delicious food, and lots of laughter.

Then there came years where it was about my own babies and children, about going to Christmas Eve Mass or a Christmas program at the local church, but it still involved family and friend dinners (always a stuffed turkey, pumpkin pie and usually apple pie too even if nobody had room for dessert after the main course), and of course, presents. Sometimes it meant taking new BB guns out into the barnyard to practice Christmas morning. Caring for the animals doesn't take a break for the holidays.

Those days have all passed and live now only in my memories, but I still decorate some for the season although much less than I did when I had children at home or even when they returned home for the holidays. Now it's more about some greens (artificial but they look real and don't give us allergies nor drop needles) and a few simple decorations (wooden angels and birds). I haven't put up a tree for years because I'd want a real one and it just doesn't make sense for just the two of us not to mention those allergies mentioned above.

Christmas Day at the farm will be Farm Boss, the cats, the sheep, the cows, me, a lot of birds we feed, a turkey dinner (smaller one and probably no pies), and two bushy tailed squirrels (we will visit one set of grandchildren Christmas Eve but the gift exchange and family Christmas will come later in January at a rental home in Sunriver).

Whether people celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, enjoy all its pagan symbols, or see it as a very special family time, the lead up can be beautiful or very tough, with all the expectations, the dark days, bad weather, colds, flu, expenses, so much pressure for what this season is supposed to be-- but often is not.

What I think Christmas can be is what also takes the place of religion if we don't have one. Christmas can then be about something that doesn't depend on someone else's vision of what it should be.

It can be a cozy time of the year with fires in the fireplace, lit candles (which provide a flame if there is no fireplace), movies to watch especially the old Christmas ones (I saw White Christmas on cable, first time ever to see it all and loved it), music to listen to (the Sting Winter album is lovely), cards to send (mine are not of a religious sort but of community, nature and farm living including a photo of us, our kids, and grandkids), and a plate of something sweet for the neighbors (which this year, with several diabetic neighbors and others with young children, meant two different kinds of plates and agave as the sweetener instead of sugar).

It can be walks in nature to appreciate the gift we have to be living in such a beautiful world-- and beauty can be found everywhere from a stormy sky to the smallest things beneath our feet.


It might be memories of other such seasons. Or dreams of what we wish it was, not with sadness, but an internal imaging that makes those dreams feel real. To me, memories and dreams are what make the time special, and I hope you all have a

MERRY CHRISTMAS
MAY THIS SEASON BE FULL OF GOOD THINGS,
MEANINGFUL MOMENTS
AND QUIET JOYS
WHICH ARE THE BEST SORT.

However you celebrate Christmas, or whether you do, we have now passed the darkest time of the year and are on our way to more light. This year we had the added enjoyment of a full moon and a full lunar eclipse with Winter Solstice. How cool is that!

Always leave room for the mystical, the surprises, the awareness of what might be out there. A closed mind misses a lot...

(These mountain cabins in the snow are from my digital paintings. They represent a type of home I would love to have be part of my reality but is not. I live there only in dreams but that doesn't make it less real for knowing it's not likely to ever be mine. I think this is the season for such dreams. The snow in the bottom one is likely to be the only snow I'll see for Christmas which makes it special to me also.)

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