It's Christmas time

I Love Christmas!!!!! Everything about Christmas warms my heart. I love spending time with friends and family. I love decorating the tree and wrapping presents to put under it. I love spending time finding the right gift and imagining how they will look when they unwrap it. I love holiday baking; the smell of the kitchen, the decorating, the story telling about Christmas's past, giving away precious gifts of home baked goodies to show appreciation and caring. I love how the tree smells and how that smell greets you when you walk in the door and makes all your troubles seem trivial. I love sending Christmas cards to friends and family and I love receiving them. I love decorating the tree with my family and laughing and talking about all of our shared Christmases. I love cooking Christmas dinner and sharing it with my family. I love preparing my house for guests. I usually feel rushed and nervous before I start my holiday preparations and then once I start then I am excited and confident that all will fall into place as it should.

What I especially love about the Christmas season is that it seems to give everyone permission to express Good Will Toward Man. It seems like everyone is just a little bit nicer and a little bit more forgiving. It always gives me hope that these warm feeling can be carried throughout the year. About five years ago, I found myself hoping and wishing for this feeling throughout the year. I stopped myself and realized that there was nothing that I can not do, so I set about continueing the feeling. I was determined to pay attention to what I was doing and how I was feelling, pay attention to the people around me and show appreciation for others in an authentic manner. It has been an interesting journey, I have had to remind myself several times that I was falling into old habits. I am pleased that this happens less often and most often I feel Good Will Towards Men. When I made a committment to complete three Acts of Kindness each day, it played into a direction that I was already heading in and didn't really have a label for. I believe that it has improved my feelings of goodness towards others and increased my awareness of how we affect each other on a day to day basis. I am looking forward to further growth in this area as it is again one of my goals to complete three Acts of Kindness each day.

Merry Christmas Everyone
Robyn Kichko
Silent River Kung Fu - Stony Plain