Traditions

We talked last week about all the holidays that surround the months of Christmas. It's interesting to me how all these different practices can actually tie us all together. But, what about traditions? Do you have traditions you follow? Are they things you do all year or just at Christmas time? I think traditions are a wonderful way to stay connected to the past. We do things in our family the way they've always been done to continue along the traditions that were set by the generations before us.

The difficult thing is that traditions can also hold us back. As with anything that deals with the past we can get so caught up in the "tradition" that we lose our focus for living in the moment. This was a very emotional Christmas for Heidi & I. For the first time in my life I was unable to buy Christmas presents for anyone in my life. This is, as many of you know, because of not working for almost 7 months now. It was difficult for me because I love to give gifts. In fact I love to give period. Giving to me is such a warm feeling & at Christmas the joy I find in others while I watch them open their gifts has been something that's always warmed my heart.

Many people in my life tried to make light of the situation...."Christmas isn't about giving it's about love". I heard this several times from different people in my life & of course I love the wonderful feeling this time of the year brings but there's still an emptiness inside when you can't actively participate. This emptiness lead me to reflect on the traditions we hold so dear. To me anything that we do over & over again can become a tradition in our life. These things become comfortable & as I've written before, comfort is nice but also very dangerous. We all tend to life our life to much in comfort. We walk through much of our life in a fog because everything is the same. We need to allow comfort in our life but always stay open & in the present moment even if we've done this thing a 100 times. It's living in this current moment that will always carry to new heights.

It hurts when we feel left out, especially when it's something we hold very dear to our heart. But, many times the pain we feel is that of the EGO we're hurt because we can't get the accolades we love to get for getting the right gift or doing the right thing. We feel empty because we want to be apart of the group, we want to feel connected. At times like this I try to reflect on why I feel the way I do. I try to understand where this feeling of lack is coming from & I allow myself to feel what I feel. All feelings have merit the key to me is to understand where why we feel the way we feel. Once we understand the why we can move beyond the feeling to a better place. This doesn't always happen overnight sometimes it takes time but with patience & love we can move forward to a better place. Many of the feelings we have that affect us deeply are old wounds that have never been dealt with in the past. The way to lead a more joyful life is to move beyond the past & to let go of the old wounds. By understanding these wounds & then moving forward we can live in the now. This moment is all we really have. Live each moment to the fullest & find the joy in every moment even when things aren't the easiest.

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Traditions are a wonderful connection to our past. By honoring this connection but still living in the now we will lead a more joyful life."


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