Christmas or how we deal with change

Nine days left to Christmas, nine days left to big family get-togethers all over the Christian part of the world. Planes to catch, plans to be made, big expectations and hopes to be met. What is Christmas to us? What drives us every year to keep joining the holiday rush overdosing ourselves with positive energy? The answers can vary but as I see it, what lies behind all this is a simple desire to feel secure. To go back to a familiar environment called home, to meet people who we have known since we were children and who we secretly hope know us best.

The natural desire to stop the earth from turning just for a few days and go back to what we knew as "safe" is as strong as an instinct and most of us don't even give it a second thought. It keeps us alive through the December darkness, helps us survive the otherwise frustrating crowds and queues in shops, stimulates our dreams for a better new year and gives us hope. Hope that we will rewind some of the chapters of our life, so that we can go back to our childhood, youth, or whatever we remember as safe and warm, if only for a day or two.

The worst thing that can happen in a scenario like this is to realise that there is no way back. The earth kept turning while we were away, time passed without bothering itself about our feelings and as a result, changes occurred. Christmas is this time of the year when we learn how to deal with change. How to accept what is long gone and will never come back and to welcome what is new and sometimes scary. I guess that's why people associate Christmas with love, forgiveness and reconciliation. These are the only tools we have to fight our disappointment and the feeling that we have been once again betrayed by time.

Not so bad after all. And as it seems it takes exactly one year to revive a lost hope. So ... Merry Christmas!

Picture via Flickr, credits to vince42