Give love every day

Well another Christmas Day has passed. Every Christmas we have my dad at our house, just the five of us and we sit outside on our porch enjoying the beautiful Christmas Day weather, talking and being in each other’s company. All feelings of regret are pushed aside and instead replaced with feelings of nostalgia. He comes alive when he is with us on Christmas Day, full of stories, anecdotes and life. Yesterday I watched him and thought about how his life has changed over the years.

I looked at my dad who is now 83 years old and I thought about how he was only my age when my mother died suddenly and how his life changed overnight. I looked at him and wondered how he really felt that night when he woke us all up to see our mother for the last time. I watched him for any signs of how he really feels about his life. He is of the old school where he does not talk about how he really feels about anything. He grumbles a lot and hides his real feelings behind his gruffness.

My dad said, “I am glad I am on my way out. I feel sorry for you and your children as this place is in a mess.” I agreed with him because I wanted him to have his stage. His platform. But then I thought are we too late? Can we do something to stop the destruction and ill will that is spreading so prolifically through the world?

I subtly changed the subject back to the good times and I saw the light come back into his eyes. His whole posture changed and I felt a lightness come back into his spirit. My children starting telling jokes from their Christmas crackers.  The whole mood of the dinner table lightened. We all put on our funny Christmas hats and sat and laughed and joked. All of us. Differences were cast aside as the sombreness of the world was replaced with the joy of laughter.  It was at that point that I knew each one of us has the power to shift the state of consciousness our world is facing by staying in a place of love and abundance rather than in hate and lack.

When my husband left to take my dad back home and my children settled into playing with their new Christmas treats, I logged onto Facebook. It warmed my heart to look at all the messages floating back and forth. Of friends far and near posting their well wishes. Of the feeling of hope laced with pure love, peace, and joy. And it felt really good. If only we could carry those feelings of genuine warmth and love with us all the time no matter what the obstacles are that confront us. If only we could harness that communal feeling of goodwill and keep it with us all the time how we could really change the world.

Yesterday confirmed to me that at the base of it all, all of us want love more than anything else. None of us wants the pain to continue.  And that’s why Christmas comes one day a year to remind us of love, joy, peace and abundance.

So let’s try really hard to continue to spread those feelings of love, abundance, peace and joy we felt on Christmas Day by first feeling them ourselves.  This is the only way we can change our world by being at one with who we are. Showing gratitude everyday for all that we have. Each one of us has a story to tell. Each one of us has experienced pain. Each one of us has experienced love. Each one of us knows how good it feels to be loved and appreciated. So that’s our mission from now on. Not just give love on Christmas Day but every day.