Christmas Eve Day 2018: Small Christmas Miracle?

A "recycled" posting from the vault...

Originally posted here, on janetsplanet.ca.

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I’ve been feeling pretty melancholy lately. 🙁

No need to enumerate the reasons.

They’re numerous – & some of them, a little on the heart-rending side.

But after all, why go there?

Knowing this, that what we focus on expands.

So I went out for a walk.

My main piece of life advice?

Go for a walk.

Sad?

Go for a walk.

Lonely?

Go for a walk.

Mad?

Go for a walk.

Happy?

Go for a walk.

In other words, whatever the heck you’ve got going on, people

#GoForAWalkAlready

Walking is magical/miraculous/transformative, even (the latter especially if you make it a regular practice).

I was feeling grinchly / grunchly / a little hard-done-by (maybe even a lot)

& now, I am transformed!

I walked along (thinking grinchy thoughts for the first while), then a gift idea for a friend sprang into my mind – the perfect idea, actually! (Why did it take me so long to remember she’s crazy about my chocolate chip cookies?? Easy enough for me to bake a batch, later today…)

I spoke in a friendly way to a stranger on the street (how this happened: I was on my own way to the library. Spotted a fellow walking up the street, carrying 4 or 5 books. Said to him “Enjoy your books!” & that made me feel good. Human contact, you know? Sometimes it’s good.)

I feel resurrected!

Christmas is always NOT my favourite time of year.

I have my reasons.

For me, it’s maybe a bit like slogging through a gymnasium flooded with molasses.

One painful, effort-ful step after another.

So. Much. Effort

#NotMyFinestHour

You understand?

But, we DO do life one day at a time, do we not??

I sure managed to transform this one easily!

#JustWentForAWalk

Happy holidays, everyone!

Janet

p.s. a little gratitude never hurts either, of course. We do NOT focus on what is lost. Or wrong. We focus on what we have, on what is good. Even if today, it’s just that the cat just barfed on a bare floor, as opposed to on the carpet. Yes. 🙂

There is always something to be grateful for! The more we practice gratitude actively, the more we find to be grateful for. This!

“In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy.” – Albert Clarke, quoted in Speak Peace in a World of Conflict – What You Say Next Will Change Your World, by Marshall B. Rosenberg *** more quotations about gratitude here

p.p.s. you won’t even believe what happened after I wrote this! (Which I did, btw, partway along in my walk. At the library, I’d stopped & sat down long enough to draft this.) THEN – I headed out to continue my walk. Was going to head down to the lake & walk some more along the Boardwalk. Began heading down. Smelled cinnamon in the air. Thought, “Whoa. Where is that cinnamon smell coming from? That bakery that’s near here?” & went along to the bakery a block away. Walked in the door. Whoa; what a line-up!!! Never seen the place so crowded! (Well hey, it’s December 24th, right?) I get up to the counter, & say to the girl behind it,

“Well this is kind of crazy. I wasn’t planning to come here, but I smelled cinnamon. & there are so many people in here right now, I can’t even see the display case to tell you what I want! Do you have cinnamon buns??” & she says “Yes.” & goes & gets me one (& they’re big mothers!) Puts it in a little box. I ask her to tape the box shut so I can put it in my knapsack. She is standing by the cash register, & there are so many staffers back there, & it’s so darn busy, she can’t get her turn at the register to ring up my purchase. (I did mention it was busy in there, yes?) So after a bit, then, she says “Call it a Christmas miracle!” & hands me the box. A honking big cinnamon bun – for free! Another pleasant human exchange with a stranger. 🙂

May whatever spirits there are, around us & in us, bless us all in these so-very-challenging times.

& may we all use our own voices – for our own good, & that of so many others.

p.p.p.s. lots of quotes & postings about walking here.