Remembering the Importance of the Holiday Season

One thing is certain and that is that the holiday season is starting and much earlier this year. I know y’all have heard to get your shopping done as early as you can. Especially if you will be ordering online and shipping. With all of the shortages and other issues this year seems like it will be as messed up as last year was. Another thing that is certain is just how busy we all are going to be. We get so busy that we sometimes lose the importance of the season.

We lose sight of the humanity of the very people around us. The people that we live with, the people that we interact with every day. We get so wrapped up in buying the perfect gift or in our own selfishness that we forget the season is about much more than us or that gift.

Don’t worry, this is not so much a faith post as a family post. A remember to be kind post. As I sat down to write this post I remembered a Christmas a few years ago when my aunt asked me to return a book for her to the bookstore. Her and I were in town and she didn’t want to get out of the car and go into the store herself. She said she was going to just circle the parking lot since there wasn’t any parking place. Again not a big deal. I went into the store and did what I needed to do then came out. My aunt was nowhere to be found. So I waited, thinking she was just circling the parking lot. Thirty minutes later I still didn’t see her. I walked up and down the parking several times after that. I wanted to cry so badly. I was in pain from the fall I had taken earlier at a store for her and wanted to go home. Three hours later my aunt came back saying she had forgotten that she dropped me off and went home after I got out of the car.

I shared that story with y’all last year and the reason I brought it up again is because the one thing I didn’t share was that chances are my aunt didn’t forget. She was the kind of person who expected you to do what she wanted, when she wanted, and you didn’t matter. She was tired of being in town and went home. It wouldn’t be the last time she did soemthing like that to me. When I called to find out where she was, she came back because my mother had pitched a fit at her. You would have thought I learned my lesson and drove her but she refused to ride with anyone. She had to drive. She was just that sort of person.

I spent that day doing stuff for her and was so angry at the end of the day. She had taken such advantage of me and my time. Looking back now, I can ask myself honestly if my time was that important that day. It most likely wasn’t. However, I used that day to get out of all sorts of things the next few days. I said I was still hurting from my fall. I was but could have gone and volunteered at the food pantry. It would have been uncomfortable but I would have managed. I said I just didn’t feel like going to town when she called to give me her grocery list to take care of. I could have went and got them but I was being petty.

This year (and I hope that I have in the years since that holiday season) I plan to work harder at remembering that everyone is just as stressed as I am. That it isn’t all about me. The holiday season is about spending time with those I love. Enjoying the sights and sounds that bring me joy. That remembering humanity has survived a pandemic and this year we will celebrate that survival better than ever before.