Having eroded our accounts buying presents, booked up our calendars and committed ourselves to various social events- are we feeling the Christmas spirit?
Yes this is a rant about the meaning of Christmas and what it means to different people. To me it means, on a basic level- not working (hopefully). More than that it means getting some sun, going for a run or a cycle and shedding some more winder wobbliness from the mid-section or “contentment layer”.
Having moved away from immediate family for the first time it alters what Christmas is significantly. Although I will spend it with some of the family it takes on a new dimension. One is forced to choose where to spend Christmas, rather than having only one default option, a home.
Family is the ultimate support base, the rock, your friends and they are complex relationships. To choose to spend time with some of the family and not have the option to see the other due to the tyranny of distance is a dilemma. No matter what choice you make you are likely to offend some and please others.
This year for me will be different, though hopefully not difficult. I am in a new city that has a wonderfully rich culture, things to do and amazing places to eat- all highly important in my book. It is inescapable that times change and people move on, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. In my case I think the jury is out on which it is- but I have no regrets. Only for missing the cat of course!! L
Christmas will be different in many ways this year and having moved away from any semblance of a family home it is less warm and feels like the last ties to being a child in some ways. By no means am I grown up but I do feel a much more grounded individual these days. Whilst I see so many petty things going on I try and look beyond the petty things that often occupy ones mind and focus on living a sort of life that I both enjoy yet am not ashamed of in any way.
Although slightly off topic, over the past month I also sense a change in the wind with people recently. Post-election in Australia people seem a little less tense, a little more relaxed, open… perhaps even happy?
I do hope that this Christmas is good fun and that the optimism of new government, a new year and an opportunity to create a more considerate national identity can be the revelation of the year ahead.
2008 beckons
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