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Everyday Livingness
Something About Christmas
Relationships, Workplace 440 Comments on Something About Christmas

Something About Christmas

By Matthew Brown · On December 26, 2014

I cherish the opportunity Christmas brings for me to build relationships and meet more people.

The month of December can be a great month. The gradual incline towards the festive season is one that brings a great deal of excitement to many, the approaching holiday, maybe a trip away, a few big parties and sometimes lots of drinking. I’ve noticed people who usually don’t say anything or only give a passing glance, say “hello”. I’ve also noticed people who quite often just give me a nod when passing in the corridor but surprise me with a question like “what have you got planned for Christmas?” Come January, I see we often retreat and withdraw back into the ‘grind full existence’ – so what has happened?

For those interactions where we exchanged an extra smile, nod or extended ourselves to make a passing comment or brief exchange before the break, I now have a point or marker that I feel allows me to continue with the relationship.

For me it’s wonderful to hold that point when the post holiday emotional retreat comes, and the so-called mundaneness of life kicks back in. So my gift is now the nurturing of the initial hello or pre-Christmas smile. It is a pre-Christmas effort toward me returning. I can continue from where the relationship reached and for that I’m very grateful.

I was once waiting for the high of Christmas and wanting to escape and splurge on anything that took me further away from myself. The development of my Livingness by re-connecting to myself and thereby allowing deeper connections with others that I have found through Universal Medicine has provided me with the tools to tackle life with joy and a fulfilment that is overflowing.

So yes, I love Christmas, but now for a very different reason — the opportunity to build relationships with everyone I meet.

By Matthew Brown, Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia

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Matthew Brown

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440 Comments

  • Greg Barnes says: January 10, 2020 at 3:52 am

    The interaction we have with people open the door to being open and transparent in the most Loving ways and when these relationships deepen it is one of the most fulfilling experiences we can have.

    Reply
  • Leigh says: December 19, 2019 at 11:10 pm

    From what I’ve seen this year for many it’s a much anticipated break from other parts of life that are going 100mph. Only to go into the festive period at the same speed! It’s not what we do that drains us it’s how we do it.

    Reply
  • LE says: March 21, 2019 at 7:23 am

    Yep its a con! Christmas stands for a lot of things that really aren’t about love.

    Reply
  • Greg Barnes says: February 12, 2019 at 4:38 am

    Every day can be a festive day one of celebration and luxuriant joy-full-ness as we are simply pleasured to connect with everyone with whom we pass or interact with, now that should be a standard or foundation for life.

    Reply
    • Alexis Stewart says: February 20, 2019 at 6:47 pm

      The focus on holidays, festive periods and long weekends is completely arbitrary. It’s a particular period on the calendar that we focus on as being special and as a consequence often overlook all of the other days of the year, apart from the weekends. This eyes on the horizon approach to life means that we skim over so much and completely miss out on the potential depth of each and every day.

      Reply
  • Amparo Lorente Cháfer says: February 1, 2019 at 3:23 pm

    The gift within the gift is to stay open in every encounter, allowing its expansion beyond Christmas.

    Reply
  • Mary Adler says: January 26, 2019 at 4:12 pm

    Christmas is an opportunity for people to be together and the most loving present we can offer each other is to just be who we are in true Brotherhood.

    Reply
  • Rebecca says: January 21, 2019 at 4:29 am

    I love this; ‘I cherish the opportunity Christmas brings for me to build relationships and meet more people.’ It’s beautiful to deepen relationships at this time. This year I really enjoyed seeing my family and friends and found that I had let go of expectations about Christmas being a certain way and simply enjoyed connecting with people.

    Reply
  • Rachel Murtagh says: January 3, 2019 at 4:57 am

    I have noticed that on the 25th December when going out for a walk people are much more open with each other. I went for a walk with some relatives and almost everyone we met on our way smiled and wished us a happy Christmas. There was a real sparkle and warmth to their greetings and I felt very touched. So often when walking, people are in protection and whilst talking there seems to be a holding back which makes the hello forced.

    Reply
  • Leigh Matson says: December 25, 2018 at 7:37 pm

    I have found over the years that the more open I am the more others open up with me, regardless of the time of year. Yet when I speak to others they don’t have that same relationship with other people that I have. I’m like a walking Christmas vibe. It’s the connection to my essence that allows people to open up more. When we don’t have that connection we retreat.

    Reply
  • Rebecca says: December 23, 2018 at 6:16 pm

    Mathew, I love this; ‘ I now have a point or marker that I feel allows me to continue with the relationship.’ I have noticed this in my community this week, that people have been around more and that by me delivering by hand Christmas cards that this has opened up a lovey connection with people. I have had neighbours round for tea and it has been lovely to enjoy this time when things have slowed down to connect with and enjoy those in my community.

    Reply
  • Vicky Cooke says: December 21, 2018 at 7:29 pm

    I love this part of Christmas as well but isn’t it weird (or maybe sad) that one day in the year or leading up to it we suddenly want to make it about people when we could make it about people and connection every single day all throughout the year ✨

    Reply
  • Elaine says: December 19, 2018 at 5:25 am

    I went shopping for presents today and it was so obvious that just about everyone else was doing the same…..there was a much more intimate feeling in the big department store and yet an openness too as people discussed whether so and so would like such and such…we were coming together for the benefit of others. I did not feel the usual rush and stress that can come with last minute shopping. I chatted to lots of people and everyone was very patient and very friendly. Yes there is something about Christmas and it’s great to be part of it.

    Reply
  • Helen Elliott says: December 18, 2018 at 5:38 pm

    Despite the negativity around the increasing commercialisation of Christmas it does offer the opportunity to connect with each other and that is a gift to be cherished.

    Reply
  • Lorraine Wellman says: November 2, 2018 at 3:37 pm

    By connecting more deeply with ourselves allows us to deepen our connection with others, ‘ re-connecting to myself and thereby allowing deeper connections with others’.

    Reply
  • Lorraine says: October 25, 2018 at 4:31 pm

    This is lovely Matthew, as I find most people love being connected to, using Christmas as an opportunity to build relationships with more people, ‘the opportunity to build relationships with everyone I meet.’

    Reply
  • Rebecca says: October 21, 2018 at 5:40 am

    Matthew, this is beautiful; ‘So yes, I love Christmas, but now for a very different reason — the opportunity to build relationships with everyone I meet.’ I love how you make Christmas about people and relationships.

    Reply
  • Sam says: September 13, 2018 at 6:32 am

    Maybe the very fact we have fallen for the idea that ‘one’ day of the year is ‘special’ is the very reason we are not loving all of the time how we should naturally be, Making one day special makes a mockery of the rest.

    Reply
  • Meg says: September 11, 2018 at 2:46 pm

    I agree with you that there is the potential for something amazing when it comes to Christmas, because everyone stops for a few days and so has more time to connect with people – I also totally agree this does not need to be reserved for Christmas and that potential is there everyday.

    Reply
  • Sam says: September 5, 2018 at 6:21 am

    Oh no, its only just gone August and I saw in our main supermarket chain yesterday Christmas cards for sale – I had to double take, really for the purposes of retail and sales Christmas is one big gimmick.

    Reply
  • Nicola Lessing says: July 26, 2018 at 6:40 pm

    I went to a business event at a bank yesterday (it is July) and they themed it as Christmas complete with a Santa MC so no need to wait until December for a ho ho ho – available every day.

    Reply
    • Nicola Lessing says: July 26, 2018 at 6:44 pm

      I originally come from the UK and have lived in Australia for 25 years now but I still have it programmed in me that Christmas is in winter and not summer – so it seemed more normal to hold Christmas in July (winter in Australia) than in December (sunny summer)!

      Reply
  • Gabriele Conrad says: July 16, 2018 at 11:13 am

    I remember being quite flabbergasted when walking one Christmas Day morning and a man invited me to pick as many frangipani flowers I liked from his front yard; he struck me as a miserly man, barely willing to engage and communicate and even though I accepted his offer and picked a few more, it made me wonder why we might think we need to reserve our true nature for a particular time of year. Do we use Christmas as an excuse to show more of what we truly are? Lest we’d be told of for our truth and on account of our truer nature, per chance?

    Reply
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