CHRISTMAS DECORATION REVELATIONS

I have a friend-fellow blogger who writes “Lessons and Revelations (lessonandrevelations.com).” I should have asked her to write about my revelations on this topic but here goes…I love Christmas. As my neighbor says about his wife, “It is her Superbowl.” I love the gatherings, the aromas, hustle and bustle, the food. But what I love most and am finally able to verbalize is, “I love decorating for Christmas.” My entire home becomes a canvas to create something related to Christmas. My immediate family tolerates me and my creative spirit during this time. Creativity is often chaotic.

So here are some of my lessons and revelations (friend’s blog) about me and decorating for Christmas.

Well before Thanksgiving, I began to think about what I wanted the house to look like which left me feeling incredibly grateful for the home that I have. Experience tells me that decorating will not end until dinner is served on Christmas Day, and then I will slowly deflate like a punctured tire. It dawned on me as I mentally developed the game plan, that I am much less interested in the outcome than I am in the raw materials and creating. That doesn’t mean that I am striving for anything less than visually pleasing decorations. The space decorated hasn’t changed in fifteen years yet it is unique every year. For this reason, no one can decorate for me. It is all in my head and only my hands can execute what is in my head. Last year the leaves from one of the shrubs in the front yard were dried, and found their way to the mantle, wreaths, and the dining room table. I looked at the leaves and saw what they could be and then made it happen. In the words of Stephen Colbert, late night TV host, “I love process, one thing becoming another.”

This sort of thing happens repeatedly during the Christmas season. It is ever so time-consuming yet so incredibly satisfying. But then December 25th comes and goes, New Year’s Day is observed, and the decorations need to be dismantled, taken down and stored. Last year as I took the glass bulbs from the tree, I began thinking about the hours spent putting them on. In less than an hour and a few broken bulbs, the tree was bare. I could only think – “so much harder and time-consuming to build and create than to tear down and dismantle.”

These revelations are worth packing in the bag that I carry on my life’s journey. How one gets from raw material to a product is as important as the final product itself. It is easier to dismantle than it is to create. These truths hold firm in decorating for Christmas, and they ring true in relationships. Remember this in your interactions with family and friends this holiday season.

Proverbs 12:18

PONDER THIS THOUGHT— “The journey is the destination.” Ralph Waldo Emerson