Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

I wish I had an awesome song like the one at Professor VJ Duke’s blog. Yes, take a minute to listen. I too am grateful to all of the followers of this blog. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a joyous New Year. I’ll be traveling during the holidays, spending time with family. What are your plans? Whatever they are, I’m wishing you joy and song.

Here’s a verse from one of my favorite Christmas carols:

“O Come All Ye Faithful,” music and lyrics by John F. Wade

O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem.
Come and behold him, born the King of angels.

O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him,
O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

My bookcase also wishes you a Merry Christmas.

As I close, I want to leave you with this happy Christmas thought: The other day, I had thrown a pair of sweatpants over my pajamas in my haste to get to the store to Christmas shop and beat the ice storm bearing down on my area. Well, while in the store, I had a sudden breezy feeling. And with good reason. My sweatpants were in the process of falling down! Of course I was carrying something at the time, and only had a couple of fingers free.

I ducked down an aisle to pull them up, only to find someone standing in the aisle. I waddled to the next aisle, and then the next, finally reaching an aisle empty of people. Nothing says Christmas like a woman wearing red pajama pants with sweatpants practically pooled at her ankles. Now, isn’t that a holiday image you wanted stuck in your head? Happy Holidays!

Nativity photo from kingdomnewtestament.

A Belly Button for My Bookcase

Every bookcase needs a belly button. What? You don’t believe that? It just so happens that mine has one. (And yes, my bookshelves are crowded.)

Have you spotted it yet? The belly button I mean. It’s the word joy. A belly button reminds me that I was born a vulnerable human being—a tiny baby connected to my mother for nine months. Joy reminds me that I’m still a vulnerable human being in need of the fresh perspective that joy brings.

And of course, this season of Christmas with songs that declare “O tidings of comfort and joy” and “Joy to the World, the Lord is come” are a vivid reminder to be proactive about being joyful. Not always easy, huh?

You know, the word joy has occupied my bookshelf so long—years actually—I stopped seeing it until today when I needed the reminder. See, instead of tidings of joy, I’ve been singing tidings of grumpiness, constantly focused on what I think I don’t have or what I do have (loud neighbors, a car with bald tires, a refrigerator without chocolate). I’d forgotten that joy, unlike happiness, isn’t intermittent or based on things going right. It’s an all-day feeling—a secret room in my heart. I can go there, put my feet up, and remember. As Maria (Julie Andrews) in The Sound of Music sang, “These are a few of my favorite things.”

Take a joy break with me today. Remember what brings you joy.

   

“These are a few of my favorite thiiiiiiiiiiiiings!”

Julie Andrews as Maria von Trapp from fanpop.com. Prince Zuko from probablymortal.com. M&Ms from shinebeautybeacon.blogspot.com. Royal Poinciana tree from commons.wikimedia.org.