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
451 Comments
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)!
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?
The ups and downs of life are a normalised part of human life which we feel innately is not true to our body or our essence. The answer to living a truly consistent life comes from living the essence.
‘the nurturing of the initial hello or pre-Christmas smile’ … now that opens out Christmas, not as a high point of the year but as a new standard or platform of connection going forward in how we can be with each other, and that feels so much more supportive of us all.
It is like we have accepted that life is very intense and a struggle and so we live in a way of ‘battling’ with this instead of going about life a different way, surrendering to something deeper within and recognising that there is a consistent joy that can be lived each day.
Living every day in true connection with ourselves and all other is the best celebration we could ever wish for.
Matthew, this is very gorgeous; ‘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 embrace the Christmas period and make it about people and connections, very inspiring.
Opening up instead of re-treating back into our shells should be the way that all relationships develop. This is because of the way we express to each other with love brings in a deepening of our evolution.
When every day becomes the same day then the joy of living with our divine connection brings us closer to those we interact with.
I like what you share here Matthew about how we can build relationships and celebrate each other 365 days a year not just at Christmas time. Why limit love which is limitless to the Christmas period.
This is so gorgeous Matthew. It is inspiring to feel you honouring the connections made along with honouring the value of the connection itself. This is precisely how we restore trust in our relationships throughout humanity, through being open to sharing ourselves and building loving connections.
I like this part about connecting with other people during the Christmas festive season. It reminds me of the common experience of human life that we all share.
I agree with you Matthew. I have found people are more open to connect, and certainly a time for giving and sharing some moments together. I am with you also that the consistency of Joy I now live through The Way of The Livingness is all year round.
Agreed Rik, The Livingness brings the same day every day no matter what the day so each day is a celebration of true connection.
And if we then don’t reserve this greater openness just for Christmas but are open and welcoming towards others and nurture these relationships, however fleeting the encounters may be, our day to day life would be much richer and more fulfilling.
I love this take on Christmas – a focus on connecting with others, deepening relationships and just being together. Something we can take into every day perhaps.
I agree, people are often a bit more open during this period and are more willing to stop, open up and have conversations. I love the opportunity that this offers as it is a time of coming together and deeply appreciating each other.
I love the stillness very early on Christmas morning when the chaos and buzz have come to a halt and the human world takes the time to breathe in and be in repose, even if fleetingly.
I have been stoned walled by a colleague of mine for years I am always the one to initiate the conversation, I took everyone at the home office some Scottish Shortbread as Christmas presents to say thank you for all your help during the year. One of the members of staff came and told me how much they enjoyed the Shortbread biscuits they said they had not had anything like them before. And the other member of staff who always stone walled me piped up and said she thought they were lovely too. I take this as a break through even if she didn’t talk to me directly she was gracious enough to say how much she enjoyed the treat.
Great how you use the opportunity of other people being more open at this time of year to build on the relationships subsequently – a truly positive aspect of the gift of Christmas.