what matters this christmas/ calming the flurry

[Guest guest]

Dear Brave Souls:

What matters this Christmas, just a reminder, I know you know this in your

bones:

What matters, just this one day, is that you arrive, show up, open the door

with a smile that starts at your heart and shines outward....

Stuff doesn't matter

what matters, just this one day, is that you tell each soul you love, that

you love them and appreciate that they are on earth, and that your life would be

poorer without them...

Stuff doesn't matter

what matters, just this one day, is that you tell a little story, sing a

little song, offer a tasty piece of food, tell a funny joke, help carry people's

coats, pat children on the head, listen to the old people for a bit, ask after

everyone's dog and cat and bird and fish, tease the teenagers about their

sweethearts, tell the gawky ones they're soon going to be tall and even finer

looking, tell the awkwardly dressed how fine they shine in spirit and mind,

criticize nothing, including oneself, bless everything that can be blessed, say

only what is in your best heart and leave the b.s. that is day to day

irritations

and judgments, behind for this one day...

stuff doesn't matter

what matters is that we, just for today, accept people just as they are, all

messy, undone, wound up, not well, unhappy, frightened, over the edge, out of

it, and all the other things that poor souls on earth can get themselves into

or are pushed into through no fault of their own. You cannot go wrong by

having mercy on the sick, and clothing the naked psyche that shivers in the

cold,

and feeding the spiritually hungry, and calming and comforting and loving

others...

stuff doesn't matter

Whatever you have already bought as gifts for others-- it is enough already.

One more tinker toy or toilet seat doily is not, in the big book Up There,

going to make one whit of difference in your final grade. One more candy dandy

anything is not going to show your love, regard, or interest in others better

than your real self, your deepest soul and kindest heart, being present at the

feast.

stuff doesn't matter

In the end, stuff rots, falls apart, breaks, is consumed. But acts of

kindness and of love do not deteriorate. When people sit in my consulting room

across

from me and talk about their families, about the good parts, they never say,

" I got a 'such and such' that Christmas, " or " Boy they gave me this

cheap/expensive/ big/little/awesome/weird gift that I never forgot. " People

don't say

things like that to me in the intimacy of revealing their most inner thoughts.

Instead, they tell about the uncle who played a game of catch out in the

alley on Christmas Day. About the grandmother who tilted their chin and looked

into their eyes and asked how they were, and really wanted to know. They tell

about the aunt who supervised them walking about in her high heels and took

pictures of the event. They tell about how the big kids played with the little

kids for a while. They tell about how someone showed them something beautiful,

held them, talked to them, listened to them. And how they loved receiving living

love in that way.

stuff doesn't matter, I assure you.

So today, may you accept people and situations just as they are without

trying to change them. Believe me, if they were changeable by you alone, via

your

wishes and dreams and prayers and manipulations and cunning and hopes through

all these years--they would already be changed by now surely. But, if they are

not, may you, just this one day, accept the terrain, and go on, with as much

happiness in your heart as any human deserves to have---which is to the brim

and overflowing. One more run to the store is not needed. It isn't. Don't argue

with me. IT ISNT.

Stuff doesn't matter.

What matters? You matter, the fact that you are here, are human, are filled

with love, matters--even if you don't feel that way---you were made for one

thing far more than others--that is to learn to love and receive love on earth.

The fact that you are given this time on earth to learn and to bring these

goodnesses to life, that is what matters.

No one is EVER ready for Christmas, in terms of gifts and decorations and

food and all that la-la. The squirrel-mind of humans can always think up ten

last

minute things to rush around doing. I suggest you refuse. That right now, you

say, it's enough and I am enough--- and MORE stuff doesn't matter.

The heart is fully equipped and fully READY for Christmas ALWAYS. It needs no

shopping malls, no stores, no wrapping paper, no ribbons. It costs only in

resolve, in discipline, in filling it on a regular basis from one's own

spiritual well. Your heartfulness is the greatest GIFT you can give. I am sure

of

this. You could give me a new wardrobe or you could give me a Taj Mahal, or you

could give me a Ferrari--but they all would fall to dust in time, and the

enjoyment of them would fall away from bright memory. But if you give me your

loyalty, your concern, your regard, your inquiry into my life, you faithfulness

to

values we share.... if you comfort me, make me laugh, reaffirm that I am on

earth with purpose and reason, that there is a place in your heart for me--then

you have given the gift that LASTS forever.

This is just ceep's Christmas ka-jillion two-cent's worth, for I hope you

will have peace today, calmness-- you know, 'silent night, holy night, all is

CALM, all is BRIGHT.' If that song isn't about the human heart at this time of

year, then I don't know what it is about. My grandmother used to say to me when

I was little, that our hearts were the place where the New Child would be

laid in the manger; that though our surroundings might be poor and not all we

wished to receive such a golden child, that the heart is made golden for that

Child of Light by our thoughts and deeds.

So may it be for all of us, for just this one day, when stuff doesn't

matter...

This comes with love

and CALM

ceep gmom