Photo:A random FB post today

I received an email today Sept 25, 2018 from a merchant about purchasing something for Christmas! I did a double take on that email and then proceeded to see the picture that I used to identify this blog post. Ok, I thought, I am having a feeling response so that’s always a good time for me to write.

I am annoyed! I am disgusted! I am irritated and agitated! Why does everything have to be so rushed? 

Then I started thinking about my feeling response to a seemingly benign email. I once again felt the irritation. So what agitated me so much? Here is part of what created some of my agitation ~ The manipulation of marketing! 

Christmas-the holiday season-the holy days of that season. I do not like them! There I said it! I do not like them. This is not much of a revelation for me but what is the big AH-HA inside this is that I have known for decades that I am not  enamored with the winter season or even fall for that matter. And today through my slowing down and being really curious about this in a new way I have discover it is not so much the season as it is what it represents. I will admit ~ it really is a freeing revelation for me.

What I perceive as the buying frenzy and the idea that spending money on “things” shows how much I care has been pressurized for me?  I find there to be an energetic disaster or collapse inside of me that occurs during this shopping season.  Even if I choose to not purchase gifts, which I actually stopped doing years ago, I still feel a sensation of stress in my being. The inevitability of congested roads due to weather and “holiday traffic”  and also the bulky clothing being worn and carried in the crowded over heated stores is burdensome to me. I am in the northeast of the USA so this is my scenario. And I also know that this has diminished since we have online shopping worth billions of dollars a year and I still feel this way.

Well, this sounds tragic! LOL! Maybe it’s a bah humbug or Scrooge moment? Nah! it’s really not that ~ so says the woman who is now venting.

Which leads me to what is really at the heart of this post!  Appropriate Venting! Releasing! Expressing!  If we give ourselves the opportunity and the permission to vent, release and express all those hidden parts of the thousands of things that are grabbing our attention and thoughts during the day then I truly believe we will live a fuller and more connected life. The above statements took me about 5 minutes to vent and express. I wrote those words and sentiments verbatim as my thoughts flew through my mind. I chose not to edit them or stop them or judge them. I just allowed for them to be released through my writing.

I read a post the other day where the author stated “do I write about the truth? Or the truth?  I found that quite inspiring and also challenging.

How do I write? At times I write about the truth and other times like now I am wiring the truth. And it is my truth, in this moment anyway. Because my truth can change like the seasons. If I am connected and in contact with the deeper parts of my psyche then I can be aware of how my environment, my beliefs, my patterns are dictating how I am responding to things and people and statements. This can be a big topic so it may be explored in another post.

However, what I am deciding to delve into and explore in this moment of realization is about how it is not the winter per se that has been irritating me for decades but what it represents in our culture of consumerism and material things and how the marketing of that is a manipulation of our psyches.

Disclaimer: I am not saying that buying gifts is not a fun and loving thing to do. What I am pointing to is how we do it. Why we do it? Do we want to do it? Or is it an obligatory thing to do because “it’s the holiday?”

You want to give me a gift? Energetic or a physical gift. I say Thank you. However, the biggest gift that I can receive is the ability of those close to me to hold me in presence. Hold me in all that is rising in my emotional and spiritual life. Sharing what is rising in their emotional life.  It is not in a shiny thing but it is in how we shine together in our individual and collective truths. The desire and ability to want to be present with each other no matter what is happening in our world.

We are all a luminous gift! Nothing is brighter or more ecstatic to me than being here sharing our lives, our desires, our joys and our sorrows ~ together. When we do not do that, which our souls are longing for,  then there will always be a missing piece inside of us. Being together, sharing yourself, sharing myself, showing up will bring us closer to the love we each want and deserve.

It is in this gift that ~ Presence ~ is shared

~Be the Present with your Presence ~