Wednesday 9 December 2009

Christmas taking stock of the season

So after having yet another day of Christmas knitting interrupted by that dreaded swear word WORK I have come to the realization that I am not going to be ready for Christmas and I am never going to have a hope in Hades that I will be ready for Christmas.  After a fair bit of prayer to St Therese to help to work out what is going on.  I just don't feel that I am ready for Christmas. Ok it is time to pull out Plan C that is to go with the flow and just bumble our way through this Christmas period. I really don't have the time or effort to go all out for Christmas. I have not even done the Christmas cards that horrified one of my colleagues today. Sod it are they really that important or a true part of the meaning of Christmas.

Christmas is meant to be the time to celebrate the joy of new life and the coming New Year not being this all consuming madness that stresses everyone out and causes people to compete with each other. Christmas is not about stores and shopping events but families and the friends. For many families Christmas time is the only time families can unite in one place to catch up with each other. For some Christmas is a time of excitement and joy but for so many it is also a time of despondency and heartache.

Christmas time in our family is when we take the opportunity to gather together and remember those who are no longer with us from our Christmas Pasts. Our family, like many Territorian families, have good and bad Christmas memories thanks to Cyclone Tracy.

Even now, so many years later, I still get anxious in the build up to Christmas and am not able to get a good night sleep until I have survived midnight mass on Christmas Eve. The 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami brought back so many memories but also provided an opportunity to help others like we had been helped in the aftermath of Tracy.


The Christmas break is also an opportunity to take stock of where we are at and prepare for the New Year. I like many use the Yule time period as an opportunity to reflect on the past year and prepare for the New Year.
I don’t make New Year Resolutions but I do attempt to hash out a few goals so that we actually get something done.

This evening as I drove across the wilds of Lancashire in the Fog on my own I had time to think about why I was so stressed and was it really worth it. I came to the realization that No it was not. We are all healthy at the moment, which after the year we have had is quiet remarkable. We are not rich and not poor we have elegant sufficiency so the bills are paid and we are muddling through. The kids are growing and achieving in school, they have friends and are happy; so what else do we need. Our little, healthy family is happy and contented consequently, do we really need all the rest of that fandango.

This Christmas we will be taking time to catch up with each other and have some of that quality time which we can lose in our busy lifestyle thanks to the demands of work, school and other activities that make up normal family life in today's busy society. While we are spending time together, we will also be taking the opportunity to pass on some of our good fortune on to others though organisations such as Oxfam and Heifer.

So please have a safe and Merry Christmas with your family and friends. If you can remember someone who is not as fortunate as you are do so.

Merry Christmas from the Kota Atok family.

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