George Stahl
When we are children, we always have that list of Christmas wishes that our parents think goes on forever. It is usually written in the order of importance. We prioritize the toys. Of course, the priority changes each year, but the list is the list. What we didn’t get last year, we ask for again the next. Unless the toy has become yesterday’s news and we remove it from the list.
As we get older, the list has fewer and fewer toys on it. At least, not the same sort of toys it had when we began making the list. Now the toys are more advanced and have more technical qualities. Trucks and tractors evolve into laptops and iPads, dolls and kitchen sets are replaced with cell phones and cameras. Our taste has changed with the times and our age, and our parents are wishing we still had those lists they thought went on forever. Combined, what was on the first few lists did not add up to the money one or two items on our new list will cost. But this time, there is no more Santa for our parents to blame if we didn’t get what we asked for.
Then the Christmas comes when we get a job. It was inevitable. One day we were going to have to work and join our parents on the other side of the list. After working all year, we are surprised how short the Christmas list has gotten. It seems that having a job also means that we have become more independent and we have been able to buy for ourselves many of the things we would have to wait until Christmas to have. Something has become clearer to us. There are things on the list that we really didn’t need, especially if we were going to have to pay for them ourselves. It is an awakening to find out that what we wanted so badly was really something we could live without.
Soon, we are seeing the list from a perspective that really hadn’t ever occurred to us. Our lives have moved ahead, and we are now in the spot we wanted for the last four years of college. Our job has turned into a career, and we are now visiting our parents on occasion instead of living with them. We are asking them to make a list of what they want for Christmas, and we are the ones who smile and blame Santa if they don’t get it. Our list is not much of a list at all. There may be one or two things on it, but not enough to prioritize. That’s probably a good thing, too, because starting in January or February each year, we are given a preliminary list that the little people who live with us, our children, are hoping to see under the tree at our house on Christmas morning. They, without even knowing that we did it, too, have prioritized their list, and when we tell our parents what is on the children’s list, they simply smile and whisper, “Merry Christmas.”
Christmas Comes in the Eyes of the Beholder
Bill Kip
Christmas comes in the eyes of the beholder every day of the year. All you have to do is find it!
It was my freshman year of college when I was running out of money paying out-of-state tuition fees. My father wasn’t supporting me and, so, what do I do? I turned to the Financial Aid office, and they twisted some screws and came up with some scholarships. Then I went to the Food Stamps office and applied for food stamps. I also had a whopping $165 a month from my GI bill. I then got a job working in a bar one night a week, working as a relief cook.
One night a customer comes in and says that he makes the best chili in the world. I said, “Why don’t you come in next week and prove it and bring your own supplies?” I don’t remember if it was the best chili ever, but everybody had a good time. The regulars just had their own private party and had a good time. So, it became a weekly event, and then it became my time in which I had to come up with something. So I went through some cookbooks and found something I thought I could pull off. It was a chicken dish with a cream sauce, and everybody seemed to like it.
But there was one person there that was kind of interesting. She was an old, retired school teacher. She always sat at the bar by herself and sipped her beer alone and always left a 25 cent tip under the napkin. She was always downgrading the hippies, their long hair or the way they dressed and on and on and, of course, food stamps. So, when she came over to get her food, she tried to be very insistent about paying for the food. I just couldn’t help myself, but I said, “In a way, you have already paid for the food, because I bought the food with food stamps.” I can’t even begin to describe the look of shock on her face as I said it.
So, what is the moral of this story? Maybe it’s that you should never look a gift horse in the mouth, or however that goes, but that you need to take a lighter side of everything and bless the day for what it is. There’s a Christmas in every day and in every way. We just have to look for it. And enjoy the day.
Optimism Check
Kris Szlauko
Is your glass half empty or half full?
Our lives are so busy, especially during the holidays, that we rarely have time or the desire to do a sanity check on our state of mind or emotional state. We spend most of November and December on autopilot going through all of the chores that demand our wit, strength, and sanity.
Our minds are constantly reeling with obligations such as shopping for a special meal, all the while considering other people’s needs and desires, trying to create the beautiful mealtime experiences that were part of all of our pasts.
And then, even before the turkey and that special pecan pie are digested, we start the continuous “merry-go-round” of gift shopping again, constantly considering the wants and needs of other people in our lives.
All the while, we seem to be betting that if we can just make it until January, everything will be fine. We ignore the fact that all of these tensions push us into a constant state of mental pros and cons about our own decisions.
The one thing we can do that will give our sanity and health a greater chance to fly through the holidays is an Optimism Check.
I read this poem recently, and it has helped me with my own “Optimism Check”:
Count the garden by the flowers that grow, never by the leaves that fall.
Count your life with smiles and not the tears that roll.
I wish I could claim these words of wisdom but the author is unknown.
When you think about it, in reality, the most important gift you can give your loved ones this holiday season is a happy, healthy “YOU”!
Happy Holidays!