I’m in the middle of the longest Christmas I have ever known. Two family visits, a two-day extravaganza with my partner, and there are still days with family and friends to come. I am floating in absolute abundance and finding ways of appreciating it all.
There were twelve of us for my family Christmas and my beloved sister had the inspired idea of us all doing Secret Santa. Instead of the normal “she’s a girl, she can have bubble bath” and “he’s a teacher, he can have some red pens”, we had to really engage with this person we were assigned. We knew that we had the sole responsibility for what they would receive which seemed to encourage us to zone in, cut the trimmings, and get them gifts we knew spoke to their core. We had a budget which meant love, attention and human creativity became the key resources. Many presents were home-made, including the one I received: a photo-slideshow and video, put to music, which had clearly taken hours of time, thought and skill. We sat together in a circle in the evening, the lights dimmed, as we all focused on each person in turn. There have never been so many smiles.
Then, my partner’s family Christmas. Between us, we’d gratefully received hundreds of cards… and then the cards had gone up onto windowsills, become part of the background, soon to be recycled. My new tradition has become to make gift tags out of them. The hot tip for this is to find the smallest area of interest. As I zone in on the detail of each card, I’m amazed by the talent that has gone in to each one. The process of tagging pulls me in to the font, the palate, the use of glitter, ribbon or layering, the texture of each card. All this would have been lost to me if I didn’t zone in, get close, really see what is there in front of me.
Most of us reading this live with incomprehensible abundance. Yet I suspect we often go blank to it because our brains try to take it all in at once and fail, leaving us thinking we don’t have enough. When we zone in on the detail, we have less to appreciate, and so paradoxically appreciate more.
Here’s a new motto for 2009: Slow down. Zoom in. Engage. So much is in the detail.
Wishing you a most joyful leap in to this new year. May it be all that you yearn for… and more.
C
The World Needs Your Passion, So…
1) Make a list of all the little things you appreciate about 2008. You might want to share your list here so that we can all celebrate with you.
2) Go for a walk in nature and notice the detail with all your senses. The patterns of the frost on berries, the feel of the cold air on your cheek.
3) Make a big deal of a little thing. Thank someone for their otherwise negligible act of kindness.
4) Play with the power of one. Choose one pen, one CD, one pair of socks, one friend. Focus on just that, as if zoning in on a grain of sand, rather than trying to take in a whole beach. What changes?
© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2008
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