Keeping Calm And Being Merry Or At Least Trying To...

The songs all have you believe it is the most wonderful time of the year, and there are parts of this season I so enjoy but their are also parts of it I find too much to handle. With 14 days left to Christmas Eve I find myself more apprehensive then excited. The traffic, the news, the cost, the busy schedules, the exceptions, the guilt from overextending yourself or from being made to feel like you are not doing enough can really take it's toll, not to mention the who is missing from family celebrations.

I have always liked the lead up to the Christmas holidays, the anticipation and the child like excitement. I love seeing the Santa's at the mall and the heart warming stories on the news. The magic of the holidays. If you look you can still find that magic and hold on to it tight for when you leave that mall or listen to the news just a minute too long reality comes back and slaps you in the face, traffic, terrorism, globally and at home, next door and outside your window.

But then there is this. A tiny snowman in a teacup music box a neighbor of 30 years gave me from her own collection yesterday, and it plays White Christmas as the snowman spins in his teacup. Such kindness from an old friend of my mothers, a neighbor and friend and that Christmas Spirit that people talk about proves it really does exist. The thought and kindness in this gift means a lot to me.

 Also yesterday I met with another mom who I had only traded emails with, we share a common bond of having children with exceptional needs. We were put in touch through a mutual friend. who had immigrated to Canada a few years ago. We met for the first time in person at a Starbucks and chatted for almost an hour like old friends. To anyone who walked by it may have looked totally normal or it may have looked totally out of place depending on where you live and what you believe.But it was not normal it was exceptional.  My friend and I come from different faiths, she is Muslim and I am not, and it doesn't matter in the least to me. This amazing  lady is moving her family to Canada for a better life for her daughter to give her opportunities that children like ours do not get to have in other parts of the word. She is taking an enormous leap of faith, leaving everything she knows for the possibility of what could be and in today's heightened state of chaos and terror  I can only imagine how difficult this move is going to be for her and her family. I know though that once she is here she will quickly learn to feel and home.  We talked of so many things and it was wonderful to connect in this way. It is also apparent that we have more in common that not and that our differences are fewer then one may expect. We talked very briefly about the difference of Tolerance vs Acceptance and how they are very much not the same thing. Sitting there I realized how nice it was to be chatting with another mom about life, about accomplishments and not about the busy holiday season, about hope and possibilities instead discussing the news stories doom and gloom. She may think it is me that helped her yesterday but really it was her who helped me. She more then kindly gifted me a box of the most wonderful nuts as a thank you, I only wish I had been as thoughtful or had something I could given her. For it was more then the boxed nuts she gave me, it was the gift of friendship and the reminder of the "true"meaning of the season.
Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and a cozy mystery, I hope to soon have another one on my table to share with your again soon.