Without any fear....

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year older
And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young

A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
The rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong

And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight

A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear...
{John Lennon}


The older I get, the harder it is for me to simply be "merry" during the Christmas season. Grateful? Yes. Profoundly. Tender and generous? I sure hope so. Busier and overwhelmed? Sure. Sadly I allow the stress in...though I try and keep things simple, that desire to create the "merry" seems to agitate the stress demons and dare them to come out and play. There's a personal melancholy that can haunt me a bit during these weeks...a longing for far-off family and friends mingles with a yearning to slow the passing of time...and even the twinkle lights can't completely cure the wistfulness that finds its way into my heart.

But more than all of this, it is the clamor for things, the heightened expectation of perfect meals and outfits and gift-wrap-themes that becomes, for me, less and less merry every year. I want to be a giver. And express my love and gratitude for dear family and friends. All that's good. But I know, deep down, that I have not been an agent of change in the world around me over the past years. I do not serve my community nearly enough. As I listen to the lyrics of this {let's face it...melancholy} Christmas song, I can't say I've done much of anything lately to help anyone around me live with less fear. And the world's too messed up right now to sit back and do nothing.

So...these next days, I will gladly celebrate with my family. In the warmth of our home, with an abundance of laughter and food, a sprinkling of gifts and all the "merry" we can muster. And I will pray for those who can't....who are alone...who are without. I will surely pray for them. Then, when the wrapping paper has been torn away and the tree is on the curb, I will make some choices about how to better serve those all around me. It's time. I am more 'whole' than I have been in a very long time, and I'm ready to give away my heart again.

Joining Kathy for 

Song-ography

and linking up with

Wednesdays around the World