holiday – BrideConfesses

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I will never grow tired of movies like Home Alone, The Grinch who Stole Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, and any variation of these films I can find on the Lifetime channel. The funny thing is I’m just now noticing they have a common theme. Whether old or new, they all emphasize the importance of being grateful for what you have.

The main characters in these movies are usually frustrated, dissatisfied, or overwhelmed by their life and think everything would be easier if they had made different choices, been given different opportunities, or even come from different families. It takes an unforeseen event, usually a near death experience that causes them to become appreciative for the way things currently are. Eventually they realize the good in their life outweighs the bad significantly, and learn when it seems like things can’t get any worse they usually turn around for the better.

A major cause of distress for the characters is the false perspective they have about their life not being important. They are unaware of how much their being makes a difference in the lives of others, and believe their loved ones would be better off if they hadn’t been born at all. In reality, they are invaluable to those around them. It doesn’t matter if they have good or bad moments, have reached the heights of their profession, or become the person they planned to be.

This Christmas, some may be finding it hard to get excited about the things they already have, especially the ones no one can truly see. It is easy to take our health, family, and friends for granted. At times the trivial issues in life can get the most of our attention, and become a distraction to what really matters. So, before you start to feel bad about the way things are, maybe all you really need is a fresh pair of eyes to see things correctly, and help you count your many blessings.

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Merry Christmas!

Rachel Bryant Lundy

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So, it’s a couple of weeks until we celebrate Thanksgiving with Christmas being around the corner. I can honestly say this is the most I have ever been excited about either one of them. I have decided to truly experience both holidays, instead of just managing to get through it with gifts bought and received. As a child I had some that were great, and some that sucked. We never fed into the myth of Santa Clause, my parents certainly weren’t going to let someone else get the credit for what they bought myself and my brothers. I remember my mother being completely exhausted from all the cooking she did on both days, with little time to appreciate the importance of appropriate table setting and tree decorating my father was trying to instill in me. It’s safe to say that the romanticism of it all may have gotten lost in translation.

The change in my attitude about the holidays could be attributed to me realizing how much of ourselves that we tend to give to our jobs and even our dreams, so time spent on things and with people that make us happier become even more important. With that in mind, I am determined to stretch out the months of November and December. This year they won’t just be a blur until the day of, with me confirming that I’ve gotten what I requested, and figuring out whose house will I end up at for dinner. I am going to go out of my way to really observe these traditions, and the best way I can do this is by remembering the details. It’s in the music playing, it’s in drinking hot chocolate, it’s in putting up cheesy decorations that would typically make you turn your nose up, and most importantly being grateful for what I already have. In addition I have decided to leave the conspiracy theories about these occasions out of the picture. It’s safe to say we are not idiots, and we celebrate these holidays not because of the historical or date accuracy, but because we want to. As a society at times it can seem that we don’t have much to come together about, let’s not take away these things too.

We should not allow the “powers that be” dictate when we start getting into the holiday spirit. Do we really need our malls to let us know it’s that time of the year to be of good cheer? When will we decide to meet each other with great expectation and joy on our own? When will we go out of the way to make others happy because we want to see them smile? Should we only be like this towards the end of the year? Absolutely not. While we do have birth days, Valentine’s Day, and anniversaries, they are truly not enough.

Let’s find more reasons to enjoy our lives and our families throughout the year, and make the most out of what we have without needing permission to do so.

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P.S.

I am slowly turning into a person I never thought I would become……a sentimentalist. Yuck!

Rachel Bryant Lundy

Tag: holiday

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