Growing up in a family which celebrates Christmas and the values of that Christian family helps to keep you centered in your life. I could compare it to the point on a child's toy - a spinning top. The balance of the top is in the point on which it spins. If that is toppled the top goes out of control, yet when it is righted again, it continues spinning. Our spiritual life keeps us spinning. Since we are imperfect beings our balance sometimes wavers, but being embedded into our conscience, it rights itself and we regain our momentum to continue our ingrained spinning.
The strongest earthly source of energy to keep us spinning is our family. The stronger the family ties, the smoother the spinning, and the weaker the ties, the more likely it is that the energy runs out. As the reader may surmise, I am an advocate for strong family ties.
Families begin with a vow of fidelity, a promise to love and stay together, no matter what forces may try to break the bond. If the people taking the vow understand what that means and say it sincerely they are more likely to keep their vows and make a strong family. It is this strong bond of family that is foremost in my mind today. Much has been written about what makes a family strong. One thing that glues us together is tradition of gathering for special events, year after year, and Christmas is one of those events we celebrate. Being alone on Christmas day after having years of being together as a family can be a very lonely time. We have to relive the past times to keep from feeling alone by phone calls, or texts or emails or inviting someone into our homes to enjoy the warmth of friendship.
Happily, I had half of my family here to spend the night and then on Christmas day we enjoyed our time together with meals, games, gift giving and also with those phone calls to the ones celebrating elsewhere. Families do grow and begin to include new family members as children marry and have their own families. Families grow and change but our inner source of energy remains because we have been centered with special experiences which are unique to our family.
Each family has a different story to tell, some may be similar but at the core of our being is the love of the family that energizes us and keeps us spinning through life. I hope your Christmas events included those happy times with family to keep you renewed and energized, if not, try to find someone to be your family and start building some memories to keep you centered through both happy and difficult times.
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