What’s the name of that awful Christmas song?

It has something to do with Christmas being the most wonderful time of year.

I love the idea – and the lyrics, but I think Christmas is the most stressful time of year hands down.

We grab fleeting moments of feeling love from a store shelf and hope it’s the perfect gift for someone else.

Save yourself some time and money this Christmas AND reduce your stress!!

Ask me what I want and I’ll tell you; you won’t be disappointed and I’ll love it.

It’s one of the great paradoxes of modern living.

At a time when we want to feel like we matter most, feel good will toward others and believe that peace on earth stands a chance, we add more stress to our already stressful lives.

All year long, we multi-task, multi-purpose, multi-use, multi-fit, and multi-facet every moment of our lives, but we feel less valued and more stressed.

We eat multi-grains and multi-vitamins, and mix multiple blends of cruciferous plants with multiple protein powders that substitute for whole meals, but we feel less whole and less healthy.

We eat fructose, glucose and lactose and we’re multi-racially-milk-toast-intolerant.

We text more, write less; rush more, wait less; talk more and listen less.

We drink, smoke, gamble, eat, and shop, buying more things with money that we don’t have for people that we don’t like, giving us less time to spend with people that we love.

We build multi-tiered-towers and multi-media-multiplexes at magnificent rates of speed that house myriad retail shops and multi-disciplined families with multiple degrees, who have little common sense and less focus.

We have bigger houses and more broken homes, bigger cars and crumbling infrastructures and kids who feel entitled to having more without ever having to live with less – who will be hard pressed to learn that less is more!

All I want for Christmas is what I want all year long.

To feel like I matter and know that I’m loved.

The reality about feeling like I matter is a matter of priorities and the reality about feeling loved is a matter of being loving.

Another Great Paradox

I get what I want when I give it away.

When I’m loving, I feel more love.

When I make someone else feel like they matter, I feel like I matter.

When I need a friend, I try to be a better one.

So I want you to know that I love you and that you matter, that the world is a better place with you in it and when you’re gone, it will have been a better place for having had you here.

Here’s to finding peace in our own hearts and in our own homes, so that we have more of it to give it away everyday throughout the year.

Until next time,

Cheers to your nuts roasting on the fire, Yule logs burning brightly and missile toe hanging in front of your own mirror.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Feliz Navidad, Ommmmmmmm, and Thank You Baby Jesus.

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Photo Credit: Me