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A Season of Reflection

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  • December 18, 2017 at 1:00 pm #182767
    Kevin Mahoney
    Participant

    “Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.”

    Winston Churchill

    “Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.”

    Margaret J. Wheatley

     

    A week from today is Christmas.  Accordingly, I finished up my final holiday gift purchases this morning.  It feels like just last week I was helping my children with their back to school preparations.  One of the reasons that the fall is my favorite season is because of the radical changes that happen between the end of summer and the start of winter.  Every week seems to bring a new change in the weather and a new holiday to celebrate.  With so many enjoyable things happening, it can be easy to drift away from the practice of reflection and just be focused on all the doing that is required at this time of year.

    With the New Year just two weeks, I have decided to start my year end focus early.  Such reflection is required if I am going to create worthwhile goals for 2018.  My first step is to slow down my mind by getting out of the task completion mindset and focusing on a being mindset.  This will help me enjoy the special moments with family and friends.  It will also put me in a good space to think about desired growth areas over the next year.

    What do you do to create a reflective mind set during the holiday season?

    December 19, 2017 at 8:14 am #182827
    Peter
    Participant

    “In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer”. Albert Camus

    Took a walk around the neighborhood last night. Many of the homes had lights and Christmas trees in the windows. I love the story a Christmas tree tells.

    The Ever-green, the bitter sweet promise of the cycle of life… that it is in the depths of winter that new life is made possible, a promise of spring.  At the top of the tree a star or angel lights the way. The ornaments of the tree connected to memories of the past, hopes for the future, connection to others… all reflecting the light draped around the tree.  A reminder to reflect and perhaps notice, how even the slightest change in perspective changes what we see… experience allowed to flow, we let go.

    Letting go we fall, genital as snowflakes, and find ourselves underneath the tree protected by the branches and promise of the ever-green… Their boxes wrapped with ribbon, gifts of unknown possibilities, stirrings of some newness we have only dimly dreamed of… and if nurtured given birth to in the spring.

    “I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.”  ― Lewis Carroll

    • This reply was modified 7 years ago by Peter.
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