Thoughts At Christmas Time
I don’t know about you, but the older I get the more I like simplicity. And…with Christmas just around the corner, I’ve been thinking of simplicity and how our culture doesn’t seem to preach it. I get tired of the typical “frenzy” that now starts Thanksgiving Eve with stores opening for Black Friday Thursday evening. Are they now going to call it Black Thursday Eve? I just can’t stand it and my feelings lately reminded me of something I read that Rich Mullins said to his friend Mitch McVicker while driving one day through Albuquerque, NM past all the malls and movie theaters “Mitch, the things of this world just don’t satisfy.” Boy, I sure agree.
Then my thoughts turned to Pine Ridge Reservation and what I saw there this past summer. Those people don’t have a lot of things like we do. They don’t have malls where they can jump in their car and be there in ten minutes. But…they do have each other, as they live in close knit housing developments where they keep an eye on one another, babysit each other’s kids, cook for one another and share meals. We may tend to look at them as having less when maybe in reality they really have more? More in line with friendships and support and less of materialism and frenzied stress in finding that perfect gift for someone.
I’m not advocating Bah Hum Bug and Scrooge this Christmas, as there are many things that bring us joy and happiness (such as a new boat or a new car, ha, ha) just a reminder that it really is the simple things in life that satisfy and bring us more of a deep sense of joy, the things that we can’t see with our eyes nor wrap up as a gift but are felt more with our heart like a little bit of kindness, a thank you and a smile to someone who is having a bad day, making a new friend, or vising a sick relative.
Ellen