So, no post to the blog last night. We had an ugly Christmas sweater party, and I was too worn out to write last night, when it was all said and done. I am not two weeks in, and have already missed the every day piece of this exercise. But, we had a great time, and we enjoyed our evening, our family and our wonderful friends. I wouldn't trade that for anything.
And, incidentally, I won the ugliest sweater award. I faced very stiff competition, but my overall poor fashion sense and already elevated sweater game, carried me to victory. We had a house full of people, some great food, and great times together. I was extremely tired, but extremely blessed at the end of the evening.
It served as a reminder to me that the best times are all about the people. And, honestly, so are the worst times in our lives. We are all so connected and intertwined that there is no real way to have a great time, or a horrible time, alone. I do understand that you can be alone and find a 3 pound gold nugget, or drive into an embankment, and have eventful or traumatic time. But you cannot have a great or horrible time by yourself.
Alone, there is a lacking of context, a gap of reflection that I think is important to how the time is remembered. I believe that this is hard wired into our beings, from our creation. I think that we were created to be in total communion with God. When we failed and sinned and were cast out, that piece of us still existed. It is what drives us together, makes us connect and emotionally bound. I know that there are tons of physiological and psychological factors that many good people have studied and made their doctorate around, and their best selling books.
It boils down to a basic premise that we are drawn together and need that interaction and connection with others. If it is not there in adequate amounts, bad things happen in your soul. So, I really appreciated the friends and family that came over last night and helped us do some preventative medicine on our souls. And, hoperfully on theirs as well.
We enjoyed ourselves immensely. The food was excellent, the activities were fun. I am sure that at some point soon, in this age of electronic communication, there will be a ton of pictures from lots of the people that attended. It is what we hoped for, because we wanted to have a good time.
There is too much focus around the negative interactions we have with one another. Too much time is spent on guard, and weighing and judging exactly what was meant, by what is said and done. I am not a devotee of political correct thought. I think you should treat everyone the way you would treat Jesus, and then you don't have to worry about it. But, because we are not always very good at that, and I am seldom good at it myself, we learn to keep our guard up, weigh each interaction, it uses a lot of our spiritual energy that we don't even realize we use.
What made last night most enjoyable to me, is that I don't remember one time where I stopped and wondered what did that person mean by what they just said. I just enjoyed the time together and conversation. I may have been the only one with that experience, but perhaps not. It is those evenings, those kinds of gatherings, that recharge us, and equip us to go out into the rest of our days.
It is supposed to be what church is about, what family is about, what acceptance and true relationships are about. You let your guard down, and absorb and participate in the moment, come together at a level of understanding that does not require the judgements. So, we had that, or I did at any rate. Lots of laughing, lots of smiles, a good time was had by the hosts at the very least, and it felt wonderful.
It is what this time of year is generally considered to be about. Fellowship and family, good times and peace on Earth, to all men, that kind of sentiment is everywhere. I think there is nothing wrong with that, and should be our focus on August 23rd and March 29th and September 19th and every other day as well. It would alleviate a lot of the issues we face and deal.
However, that is not the reality of this world. So, I will take what I got. We had a great time, we had wonderful fellowship, we enjoyed ourselves. That is more than enough from any one evening, whatever time of the year it is. We are going to have to see if we cannot dedicate ourselves to many more of them, spread throughout the year.
I hope that we find peace on earth, the end to hunger and a cure for diseases of all kinds. I do, even though I know it is not going to happen, at least not at this moment. But, it is enough to find peace when it is offered to you, and to recognize it and enjoy it. We did, and I hope that everyone else did as well. That is what we are supposed to be about, and I hope we all find our way to it frequently.
I love you all.
No comments:
Post a Comment