The Heart Pocket Word for the day is Awesome

Friday, December 24, 2010

Heart Pocket Word for the Day is Festival!



The word from my heart pocket is Festival!

The holidays! A time of celebration that gives opportunity to feel and to express. Each of us chooses how we want to experience the holidays - commercially, religiously, wildly, reverently, tropically, knee-deep in snow. For some it is a time of sadness, a melancholy that comes out as symbolically and as ceremoniously as trimming the tree. Some people have birthdays during the season and feel a bit cheated by Christmas thunder. Traditions, expectations, heightened sensibilities - we are vulnerable this time of year. We are easily manipulated to joy or sadness, which is a clue to us that we also have the power to choose the experience. Because Christmas is a Festival of the Heart, we are open to all it has to offer. 

The playful nature of any festival allows us to let down our guard, to be lighthearted as well as honor what we hold dear. Anything goes! By throwing expectations out the window, we make room for possibility for more fun and a richer experience ... and even new traditions.  

I know about sadness at the holidays. I have also experienced great joy! I have felt completely alone and completely surrounded by love. Every year, something is added to my Christmas memories and my Festival of the Heart writes a new chapter. For me, it is a festival like no other because it draws me in and when I emerge, I am better for my participation. The thoughtfulness, the busyness, the food and drink and music and decorations. The whimsy, the reverence, the majesty, the glitz. Homespun, heartfelt, delicious smells and taste that satisfies every vision of sugarplums I ever had. Wonder, reflection, transporting me to a deeper life experience. What a powerful celebration, this Festival of the Heart!

This holiday season, let your heart lead the way. Celebrate your humanity! Feel the connection among us as humans, and as Souls. We have the power to change moods, moments, our life experience. Let us do it together and bring meaning to the Festival of the Heart!