When Reindeer Fly

It’s tough to build an audience writing once a month but it’s been busy. Now that everything will slow down for a bit perhaps I can catch up with whatever this is here.

Well the end of the world is coming on December 21^st. The official countdown begins. This is the 3^rd end-of-the-world countdown I am experiencing in the last year and a half.
The last two were lead by Harold Camping, a kook, who was merrily playing his Pied Piper role to a flock of sheep who really should have revolted after the first time the world continued to thrive, let alone the second time.

This one is the real thing though, according to those who believe that because the Mayan calendar ran out of space on the rock on which they carved a calendar that the Earth will get sucked up in to a black hole of nothingness, or something like that.

If the world does end on the 21^st, it will now officially be ok with me though. There was one thing that I wanted to do at least one more time before I died and I did it a few times this past week, so I’m good to go now. It was one of those things that seemed to be in the same category of “when pigs fly,” or “when hell freezes over.” So everyone buckle up for that launch into oblivion in 17 days.

So we are well into the holiday season here in the United States and wherever else on the planet that isn’t dominated by heathens and atheists.

Frankly, I’m not a religious man. But I did grow up in a predominantly Christian society so I do celebrate the Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Both holidays I celebrate a little differently because of my beliefs or, you might even say, lack of them. But I do find people’s faith a very powerful thing and sometimes wish I could experience the same thing.
I have to settle for my own understanding of everything in that subject and am quite comfortable there.

I have had, in my life, a stack of real terrible things happen around Christmas time. For quite some time it soured me on the whole month. It was really a horrible way to live though; hating a whole month of the year and wishing it would just get over quickly.

There came a point when I found it necessary for my own sanity to rise out of the pit of misery from which I refused to remove myself for years.
The process of turning that part of my life around revolved around taking a brand new look at everything and simply coming to terms with my experiences on a whole new level. I focused only on the positive things that crossed my path refusing to allow negativity to breach the filter into my thoughts. This didn’t matter how little there may have been that was positive; I would only be grateful no matter what happened.

Sure enough, and soon enough, this time of the year became the most important to me. Mainly because it was evidence of a great power perhaps just in the fact that I could knowingly overcome adversity at any given moment I decided to do so, or perhaps…just perhaps…there is magic in Christmas after all.

Whatever it was, or is, I still refuse to allow myself to be anything but positive. Even though the last two Christmas seasons were pretty rough I still hung on to every little positive thing I could because I knew, from my new experiences, that I would pull through emotionally, if not in any other way. In the end, for me, I think that is probably the most important part.
That, maybe, is sort of similar to what those of faith experience in their journeys through life. So it is why I share a kindred spirit with them if not the exact same walk through our short period of time on Earth.

During this time of the year I prefer to do things that help me create special memories about which I can think through the year or around every Christmas season. Sure, it is a time for giving as well but I am pretty clearly someone who finds that buying presents doesn’t always quite fit into “giving” the way that I define it, or feel it.
Sometimes just the simplest gestures can have a very profound effect when it comes to giving and sharing.

Are you creating those moments for yourself or someone in your life? Ever just go to the mall and sit and admire the decorations that people spent a lot of time placing out? Ever just do some people watching at the same time? Ever drive around neighborhoods to see how people have decorated their homes? Make cookies together? Decorate your own tree, listen to Christmas music and hug and dance slowly together with someone special in the middle of it all? Take time to go see a Christmas show? How about an elementary school Christmas show where innocence and true spirit fills the air? How about accidentally attending a Guatemalan midnight Christmas mass given in a language you don’t speak? (One of my best experiences ever.)

The whole month goes too fast. It pains me to hear people wish for it all to be done. I always want more of it. The great thing for me is that I know I can carry that spirit with me right into the next year. Knowing I can do that simply makes life grand and spectacular for me. This season helps wash away negativity for me and there was a lot of it this year. But I can turn my frown upside down and sing Christmas songs; both clean and dirty of course, and become renewed again.

Can you?