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R.E.flections by a chaliceD.R.E.amer
     Wed 18 Nov 2009 12:00am
 
The holiday season is not far away with Thanksgiving coming next week.  As we turn to another holiday time, I stop to think about how I want to celebrate the holidays and unplug all the commercial messages that keep telling me the only way to be happy this time of year is to spend lots of money.  I will be doing a parenting workshop next week on this subject, but this subject is not just for parents.  Everyone can take time before the season starts to consider what we want our holiday celebrations to be like.   
 
Katie Lee and I have begun preparations for our annual Revels service coming up on December 6th and for our Christmas Eve services.  A common theme in our exploration of Winter Solstice and Christmas is the wide variety of ways different people around the world celebrate these holidays.  This diversity can encourage and inspire us to create our own unique traditions.  We don’t have to do what our families did.  Nor do we have to do what our neighbors are doing or what our television is telling us to do.  We need to do what we feel in our hearts is a most meaningful way to enjoy the holidays.   
 
As Unitarian Universalists, we encourage each other to use our critical thinking and loving hearts in considering all our actions.  And yet, it is so easy to forget in the daily grind of life.  Working and parenting, it’s easy to get distracted with cultural messages proclaiming the best of this and the best of that.  I will never forget when my first daughter was born and my sister asked me why I chose to breastfeed.  Instead of pulling out my list of intellectual justifications, I returned the question by asking, “Why did you chose bottle-feed?”  She responded, “I didn’t chose to bottle-feed.  That’s just what you do.”  I was enlightened.  Many people in America don’t think about their parenting choices. They just do whatever they were taught to do from their parents or from society.  I was glad to know that I did think carefully about my big parenting choices when the time came.  And yet, I know that it can be too easy to just go with the flow and not consider every choice before I make it.  So I constantly try to remind myself to routinely stop and think about the way I’m living my life.  And with the holiday season bringing an increase in the bombardment of messages from society and from my extended family about what I “should” be doing, it is now even more important to think about what I want and follow the holiday paths that I think are best for me.
 
Loving blessings that your holidays are celebrated just the way you want!  
 
         Roberta  ♥  

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