I believe in Christmas

Last night R and I went shopping and then to a Christmas party thrown by one of the clients I have at work. It was nice pairing up faces to phone and email contacts and spending some down time with co-workers and even the boss. The catered dinner was nice and it felt good to have a glass of wine and chat and laugh. There were a couple of discussions I ignored because that is the polite thing to do when you are at a festive occasion and someone is spouting their particular opinion assuming everyone else must feel the same when in fact that is rarely true.

So let me just say now that I am not a Christian, I do not believe that there is only one path to God, and my definition of God is probably not very close to what other's believe. That being said,I do believe in Christmas and the power we have given to the day December 25th. For me there will always be love and presents and a christmas tree and family and candy and eggnog. There will always be a christmas eve where I can stand outside with my eyes closed and tap into the energy of billions of people feeding the global connection we share with peace and love and sadness and frustration. It is a night of potent feelings and the electrical storm is fierce. I love this night, it has always been more than special, it is a wondrous yearly bookmark that shows the potential we all have to be our best while hoping for the unattainable. Other times of the year I have my doubts that the human race can ever overcome the violence we continue to display, but this one night I am able to believe that every single one of us has a spark of goodness no matter how deeply buried  it may be. On this night hope is paramount and any traces of lingering despair are swept away by grace from the heavens.

I am so grateful for this world; for the beauty, for the love. And while I could do without the pain, it is a separate entity living inside of me just now, alongside but not diminishing my gratitude.

Time to putter; the dogs need food, A needs to go shopping, and R needs to take me to where I left my car last night - too tired and tipsy to drive myself home from the party.