I had a dream last night. I was a bridesmaid in the wedding of a high school friend and I had lost my dress. I was wearing to slips, one as a slip and the other as what I thought was a jaunty looking cardigan to cover the slip-y-ness of the first one. I was running around the wedding chapel / funeral home / 500 room mausoleum and was completely lost and kept encountering things like people playing a roulette wheel and a room with kids in a fountain eating the pennies which were chocolate coins. It was a very strange dream.
Why do I tell you about this strange dream? So you can know that I am losing my mind? No, because I have been thinking about how crazy and hard life gets sometimes.
Life is also good and filled with wonderful things, but there are times when it can seem really hard and really overwhelming and really just... too much.
I woke up from my dream feeling frazzled and almost out of breath from the panic of looking for the dress and having no idea where I was. I spent most of the morning trying to shake that feeling and think of something better. - Then I got an email that reminding me to Celebrate What is Right With the World.
There is help if you are someone who is struggling around the holidays with food insecurity and hunger. If you are needing more long term assistance - Here is that too.
And for all of us, those struggling and those who are not - there is no more perfect time that the holidays to celebrate what is right with the world.
Sit your family down for a simple meal and enjoy each other's company. Talk about your favorite family traditions and what you like best (or what is the worst) thing about this time of year. Stand with your family in the kitchen and prepare a meal and talk about what kind of things you are looking forward to this winter season, perhaps sleigh riding or a snow fort.
Yes, I know it is cold outside and we have all done our fair share of complaining about how cold it is. But let's do a little bit of celebrating too. Celebrate how good the cold air feels in your lungs when you are breathing heavy shoveling snow or Celebrate how silent the night is when the flakes of snow are big and fat and falling so slow they almost seem to stand still in the sky.
As I am sitting here writing the chubby little birds are flying in and out of the trees in the backyard to their homes in the ivy bushes, they are chirping at the last little bit of the day's sunlight and at each other. They remind me that we all seem to struggle a little but we don't have to stomp and growl about it - we can fly and sing.
