I was pretty busy on Saturday. We were making preparations for Christmas. I brought up the decorations from the basement, including the outdoor lights which I hang on our home each year. It's no small feat. Including checking the bulbs, placing the hangers on the gutter to planning where I am going to place the lights, and then actually climbing up and down the ladder, it takes a couple of hours all told.
I found myself thinking, "I'll be glad when this is all done." I had to stop myself. Why not be glad now? What was delaying my joy? Wasn't I decorating my house in preparation for Christ's birth, after all? And wasn't the sweat and soreness worth the end result?
My answer to those questions was a shift in my posture to one of gratitude and simple surrender to the moment. It enabled me to be patient, taking a systematic approach to the process. I was met with an unexpected buoyancy in my spirit and a spring in my step. In other words, I actually enjoyed the "drudgery" of the chore, and was able to really begin celebrating Christmas through it.
This started me thinking about all the myriad ways in which I delay joy in my life. "If only I had/was X, THEN I'd be happy" and "When X happens, THEN I'll be happy" are common refrains in my brain. But life isn't something that happens once we get everything set just the way we want it. It's happening all around us, at all times. It's up to us to wake up and be present in the moments of life that are passing us by. It's also about waking up to the incredible treasures and gifts we hold in our hands and are given freely every day. Life truly is a miracle. Perhaps if we accepted each day as a miracle and every moment as an opportunity to live in and spread Light, our joy would emerge from us as naturally as our breath.
