Shining Thru

It’s that time of year again when the weather turns cold, you’re trying to make sure that you have a gift for everyone that will be at the family get together this year.  Trying to align schedules and make everyone happy, while the people on the street have nasty attitudes and even worse driving habits.  You try to stay calm and not use your horn or your finger as you’re trying to cruise down the street in peace listening to your Christmas music on the radio.  But one person after another cuts you off, or flings something out their window, or is just plain rude in one way or another and by the time you get home you’re frustrated.  No matter how hard you try to forget about it, you’re still frustrated.  And everything, every little thing, that happens after that makes you more and more frustrated until you feel like you’ll simply fall apart.  You feel like at any minute your very being will fly into a million pieces and you will bust apart as the tears start to fall….no real reason, just too many high powered emotions rushing you at the same time.

Sometimes you wish your life was more like one of the Christmas movies you like to watch at this time of year, where the whole family learns a valuable lesson and everyone is smiling and singing Christmas Carols by the fire at the end of the movie…..unfortunately, life is not like that, not by a long shot.  You’re probably going to have to fight every person in that room if you want them to play the piano, stand around the piano and sing instead of watch whatever game is coming on tv.

Sometimes you wish Christmas was about what you thought it was about all of those years ago.  What the Whoos make it about in one of my favorite Christmas movies, when little Cindy Loo Who wants to make sure that everyone knows Christmas for what it is, instead of what we have turned it into.  I think sometimes we do lose track of what is important.  Even if your family is driving you crazy this Christmas season, it is important that they are still here and that you can still see them.  That you still love them, because they are family and it’s Christmas.  Hopefully we can all keep it together, long enough to remember that message.

What do you do after the holidays when everything is cleaned up and you’ve visited with everyone that you haven’t seen in awhile, all of the presents are opened and most of them are being played with?  Now you’re missing the familiarity of home and your loved ones back at home.  Your own bed, kitchen, couch, etc….you find out that you miss the comfort of being in your own home.  Tired of living in someone’s guest rooms or several different guests rooms, moving from house to house to see all of the different people, family and friends.  If it’s out of choice or obligation, there comes a point that the visiting just gets tiring and you’re ready to be back at home.  It’s nice to see everyone and spend some time, but eventually it gets kind of old, even if you haven’t spent the whole holiday time with the same people.

What happens when you’re ready to go home.  You need to go back and do everything that you left undone at home.  Spend time with the loved ones from back at home.  Feel loved and happy in your own home.  Be held and able to relax around the town you have come to think of as home….

Red, Green, Yellow, and Blue; balls and stars glowing from the corner on the Christmas tree.  Presents piled under the low branches, surrounding the beauty of the tree.  Snow on the ground outside the window, reflecting the lights that are on the house and in the yard.  Santas on the corners.  People giving holiday greetings and smiles.  Relaxing nights at home with the family.

Then you turn on the news and see all of the people stuck in the airports or stuck in the snow somewhere.  Especially with the snow storms this year hitting in places that aren’t equipped to deal with the type of snow fall that has been happening.  Trees weighed down with the “dusting” of snow.  The power out because of the trees unable to stand up tot he weather that is coming down on them.  Long lines at the stores for all of the last minute shoppers.

There are good sights and bad when it comes to the holidays.  Some filled with love and others filled with frustration. The holidays bring out so many different sides to people and situations that we don’t see any other time throughout the year.  It’s always interesting to see how things will turn out each year.  Will you be someone looking for another flight to get home to the family or relaxing at home with some of the people that you care about and love?  Every year is different.

What creates a family?  I really don’t think that it is the blood that people share.  You can share the same blood as someone and not want anything to do with them, or maybe not even know that you are related, maybe never have even met.  I think that family is created between people who love and care about each other.  If it’s some friends or maybe people who took care of you and that you lived with for whatever reason.  Maybe it’s just a group of people who were thrown together in some unusual circumstances.  The blood running through the veins of a person does not create the person that they are, any more than it creates the person’s family or the group that they belong with.  Sometimes you simply fit with another person and they become your family.  You love and care about each other, support each other through the good and the hard times.

I feel bad for the people that constantly push away the people who simply want to love them.  Want to be there for them and give them a place to belong.  I think that some people are so afraid of being rejected or hurt if they let people be close enough to consider them family that they would rather just keep everyone at arms length and not give them the chance to get close enough to hurt them.  Sadly, sometimes people do get hurt by the people who they love the most, but without risking it, you may never know the love of a family.

What is family?  I have never thought of my family as just blood relations….but what makes a family?  Does it just take a caring heart…I think it’s more than that.  I think it has to be someone who loves you and cares about you…but more than that they have to be willing to stand by you and be there for you even in the toughest of times….someone who wont walk away because it got hard or they disagreed with a decision that you make.  Blood doesn’t make a family, heart of a person willing to give and sacrifice for another person makes a family….

On that same note, I’m not sure that family requires unconditional love …. or that unconditional is even available to most people.  It’s an interesting concept….LOVE…what is it that attracts some people together for a romantic relationship, parental relationship, or some other kind of family relations.