This time of year we’re surrounded by blessings. We feel it in those moments when we’re with family, cooking up holiday treats, sipping special beverages around the fire, or making a snowman. We come together this month in a way that enhances our joy. And we’re blessed by it.
Kids show us how to still believe in something magical and bigger than us. For kids in the Christian tradition, the one I am most familiar with, they write Santa letters and send him emails; they give us copies of their Christmas lists. We are blessed with their simple joy when another present is slid under the Christmas tree and when they shake their gifts to guess what’s inside. Then there’s the litany of “oohs and ahhs” from the children who see gigantic Christmas trees like my niece just did, standing beneath it with her mouth open in awe, looking so small in the face of that fabulous fir.
And beneath all of this connection and rapture are the blessings we hold in our hearts. For our health. For the safety of our family. For our jobs. That we are okay.
And in taking a moment to see those blessings—all of them—our happiness grows.
Our hearts want to burst, and we find ourselves recalling good memories of people who have passed on, how they used to make certain holiday cookies or their own version of Bailey’s, like my great-aunt did.
Blessings are all around us: in people, in decorations, and in food.
And yet our biggest blessing is that we are here in this place, right now. As New Year’s edges closer, we start to ask: how have I fared this year? Am I where I thought I’d be? Am I somewhere better? But there will be time enough to reflect on that.
Be in the moment. Savor the holiday blessings in this season of light.
It’s where happiness truly reigns.