The Holidays

Long ago I chose to opt out of the typical holiday season and its traditional trappings because I no longer wish to partake of many things that go along with it all. That’s not to say that there aren’t people out there who don’t strike their own path and do their own thing while still observing some sort of holiday tradition, but many people march to a very familiar drummer whose beat starts on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving Day in the US. (Although that beat seems to start earlier and earlier each year.)

Like so many things in life, people follow along or continue to do many things out of habit and expectations from family, friends, or society-at-large; and this includes the running of the holiday rate race where for the vast majority of people consumerism and consumption is king. The first of the “Big 3” is Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a traditional holiday where we celebrate and give gratitude; but I must ask this simple question: Why only one day out of the year? If we wish to schedule in a time to have gratitude, then let us schedule that time in every second that we live, how we live, and why we live, all in gratitude. Let this be your ritual, let this be your rite, a life of gratitude lived in gratitude.

For you, I am grateful.

For All, I am grateful.

Ask not what there is to be grateful for, but instead ask, what ISN’T there to be grateful for? Even in my trains and tribulations, I am grateful.

For all that I have, and for all that I have not, I am grateful.

For all that I am, I am grateful.

For all that I may become, I am grateful.

I am grateful for the now. For now is all we have. Time, past and future, is merely perception. Live in gratitude for the now; and now you will live in gratitude. Simple. Easy. It is.

So when someone says that I must celebrate on some special day to give thanks, I ask them if they celebrate the now and the moment that is special. I ask them if they live their moment, their life of now in the now, or do they live it looking to the past and to the future, neither of which exist? To not live in the now does a disservice to the life that you are, and to the now in which you exist. To not live in the now, is ungrateful because you are missing out on the most important thing you have to be grateful for: NOW.

What are you grateful for?

Focus on the now and you will find out.

I propose starting a gratitude journal, writing down everything and anything you can be grateful for, even if it seems like it is difficult to be grateful for it. Perhaps in doing so, you’ll look at things in a new light and gain new insight about yourself,….and for that, you can also be grateful. If you walk this path, you will find inner peace for which you may also be grateful.

Christmas

Here we have the tradition of Christmas, which I see as really two holidays. One is a religious-based celebration and the other is secularized, consumer-based holiday that overshadows the religious holiday. In regards to the secular consumerism of the holiday, I’ve found that people are often times not only spent financially, but emotionally as well. If one follows the tenets of the religious-based holiday and the related celebration; then one must conclude that this is counter to the message of the secular and consumer-based holiday. Both versions of this holiday have gift giving in them, however therein lies the difference between them because one is meant to honor a king, while the other only honors the corporate pocketbook which only sees cash as king.

If we wish to focus on the aspect of the giving of gifts, then what better gift to give then of yourself? Yes, I suppose it is nice to be able to give expensive or brand-name material things to your family and friends that you purchased online or from a brick and mortar store; and while this could be considered giving of yourself because of the thought and time that went into acquiring such things, what I’m talking about at is giving of yourself at a much deeper and meaningful level than that.

Give of your time.

Give of your love.

Give of your compassion.

Give of your empathy.

Give of your forgiveness.

Give these things and other intangible, non-material things every second, every moment of the now; not just certain days of the year (Christmas, Birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc)

You’ll find the greatest gifts to give and receive are the ones that can’t be held in your hands, only in your heart. These are the treasured memories, the hearts of love that bring joy and peace to the soul, and affect the All.

Living a life in gratitude and abundance, living in the now, these are some of the greatest gifts you can have and share with others. By living in the now, you will show others a way which they may see. In living this gift, you share it. In sharing it, others may receive it, in receiving it, others may share it, and the cycle continues on. All that we do is out of love or fear; just as we can choose to perceive abundance or scarcity; all choices are ours to make under the banner of free will.

I love to spend time with my family and friends, regardless of any holiday, birthday or any other reason for doing so, because it is they that are special to me, not the day, the occasion, nor any given reason other than that.

New Year’s Eve

After we’ve given our gratitude the one day or year on Thanksgiving, shopped until we almost drop purchasing things until our credit cards and bank accounts have melted down; we end one year and begin another with a celebration at Midnight. We celebrate the death of one year transitioning into the birth of a new year at the strike of a moment at Midnight. One moment, the click ticks a second later and the moments’ gone and a new moment has begun; or so says the perception of time. We perceive that one moment has past; another has begun, just as we perceive another year has passed and another has begun, yet in both cases, we are always in a moment. One moment. That’s all we really have is just that one moment of the now; but the question is, how do we live it? We seem to place so much focus on a perceived future and a perceived past, yet it’s all the same moment. For some reason, we seem to place importance on these past and futures, certain dates, places and times, and yet we so often miss the very moment we are in of the now; and we end up missing out fully living and fully experiencing our existence in this realm in our incarnated state of being. We miss out.

If you ask me to explain it with logic, I cannot. I couldn’t explain it any more than you could explain the meaning of life or love; but you know it when you see it, when you feel it, when you live it, and yet you can’t describe it, but you know it ways that can’t be communicated in the verbal or written word, only experienced. It’s there just beyond our capacity and ability to reach it without intellectual minds, but our heart and soul can always know what our mind cannot.

I propose that you don’t celebrate a new year, but rather the moment. It’s ok that we perceive time with a linear past, present, and future. I suggest that we choose to perceive each moment as a new beginning and a new ending, its own autonomous cycle of life, death and rebirth anew where we cherish each moment in gratitude and receive abundance and joy for every moment of our lives.

Copyright © 2009 Ron Schreiner All Rights Reserved