A Different Kind of Christmas Ritual

photo credit: BLW Pho­tog­ra­phy

In recent months, through the death of my mother and the immi­nent death of another fam­ily mem­ber, my bless­ings, for health, life, for loved ones who mat­ter, are more evi­dent than ever. My pri­or­i­ties have shifted. I find myself unin­ter­ested in the usual, mad rush to shop, that I, like most, gen­er­ally engage in at this time of year. Instead, I am rec­og­niz­ing a desire to cel­e­brate Christ­mas in a rad­i­cally new and dif­fer­ent way than in years past.

So I decided to cel­e­brate Christ­mas dif­fer­ently this year. Instead of spend­ing money in malls and stores try­ing to guess what sort of thing each per­son might appre­ci­ate, I decided instead to share some of the things I already have that are mean­ing­ful to me.

In the Native Amer­i­can tra­di­tion, they call this sort of rit­ual, “A Give Away.” On their birth­days, many Native Amer­i­cans give gifts to cel­e­brate their spe­cial occa­sion, rather than accept gifts from oth­ers. Giv­ing gifts is their way of acknowl­edg­ing, and cel­e­brat­ing, the life they’ve been given.

I found that this idea of a “Give Away” matches my present state of mind, a mind-set stirred by the death of loved ones, and that prompts me to real­ize, with grat­i­tude, the tremen­dous gift that life is.

Besides, what bet­ter time than now, in times of a down econ­omy, to put a prin­ci­ple into prac­tice of shar­ing with oth­ers what we already have?

I shared the con­cept with my fam­ily and they all seemed open to, and excited by, the idea. And so it has been decided, Christ­mas this year will be a “Give Away.”

For me, it’s been won­der­ful so far. I have been going through my house, gath­er­ing gifts for spe­cific loved ones in mind. I am giv­ing things that are mean­ing­ful to me, not because I am ready to get rid of these pos­ses­sions, but because I want to share them with peo­ple I love so they can enjoy them too! The antic­i­pated plea­sure of shar­ing my spe­cial pos­ses­sions with peo­ple I love is giv­ing me a whole new under­stand­ing of the spirit of Christ­mas — and it’s not even here yet!

After all, the rea­son for the sea­son of Christ­mas is to cel­e­brate God’s gift to us of his most mean­ing­ful pos­ses­sion, his pre­cious son, born in the manger of our own hearts, when we accept his love for us. Why shouldn’t I choose to share things with loved ones that I trea­sure as well?

In the study of pros­per­ity con­scious­ness, we learn that abun­dance is cre­ated through open flow. Like water in a stream that becomes stag­nant when it is dammed up with­out an out­let, we too become glut­ted and stag­nant in spirit when we hold on to things, or take in more than we give. To let things go sig­nals that we trust there is more to come and cre­ates a space in our lives for even greater gifts to come our way. Such an atti­tude is one that pro­motes abun­dance and plenty.

So this year, each fam­ily mem­ber has agreed to bring one thing they trea­sure and want to share in the Give Away. We will share a meal together and then take turns select­ing some­thing from the alter of Give Aways to take home with us, that through it, we might remem­ber what the true mean­ing of life, love and Christ­mas is really all about.

Merry Christ­mas and Many Blessings,

Lynne

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