Hear Jim tell his story: https://www.youtube.com/
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Life, actually…
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RUSHING HEADLONG INTO THE UMPTEENTH CHRISTMAS
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About to drown in a sea of stress and confusion and disorientation and political insanity and way too much directionless chatter?
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Back up a couple of steps with me and consider focusing on better times to come.
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This isn’t easy, but it is not as hard as it looks.
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There are those among us who are filled with dread at the prospect of a Holiday Season coming up.
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There are those among us who wait with entranced expectation, hoping the season will arrive just a week earlier for once, so that we won’t have to suffer so.
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On the other hand, the Holiday-Dreaders remember only the bad: the requirement to give a gift to someone you not only don’t like but someone who never gives you anything back…the memories of frayed nerves and too much imbibing and too much candy and too much screaming and shouting and straining to please.
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Then there are the Holiday-Delighters. They just know that, despite the fact that they might be surrounded by Holiday-Dreaders, this year will be different: this year everybody will be happy and mellow and smiling and hugging and just plain relaxed and pleasant for a change.
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The Holiday-Dreaders know that Christmas will be a dreadful pain and they hope it will not happen this year at all.
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The Holiday-Delighters know somewhere in back of their very souls that not all Christmases have been wonderful, but they persist in carrying forth the dream of what Christmas might be could be should be oh please just this one time will be!
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And so Christmas slowly inexorably marches our way, oblivious to the Delighters and the Dreaders, not at all aware that there will be misery and joy juxtaposed throughout the land, not at all aware of the turmoil going on in Delighters’ heads— all those sugar plums and magical wistful Santas and Frostys and Rudolphs and Deck Us All with Boston Charliers…not at all aware of the turmoil going on in Dreaders’ heads—all that tension and feeling of incompleteness and feelings of no-gift-will-be-good-enough in the eyes of the receivers.
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Christmas will come again and go again and the Delighters will hold whatever good memories they salvage in a safe place to bring forth in the hot and humid days of July, to be treasured anew…and the Dreaders will try to forget it all and hope that another Christmas doesn’t come too soon.
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You can wait for Christmas with open arms open heart open mind open soul and find the gentle goodies therein.
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You can pace the floor hating the very idea of Christmas and dreading each thought of it again and again.
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Whether you decide to become a Dreader or a Delighter, you most certainly as long as you are on this earth will not be able to avoid Christmas.
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Select the attitude you want and embrace it and don’t let the bed bugs bite on this next wonderful opportunity that’s being offered to you as a precious gift.
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If you’re worried about the fact that Christmas just might slip up on you and make you feel good, just use Thanksgiving as a dry run: See what good will and good wishes and an incredibly stubborn decision to have a nice peaceful disposition for once can bring you.
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You just might surprise yourself
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Jim Reed © 2021 A.D.
Catch Jim’s podcasts of this and all his stories:
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(adapted from Jim’s memoir Christmas Comes But Once A Day www.christmascomesbutonceaday.com )
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