Christmas in October

Although I do plenty of it in my ministry, planning is not my greatest strength. Often I prefer being spontaneous, looking at the present moment, making decisions about what I want to do as it comes up. I hate being tied down to something I thought I might have wanted to do at an earlier time. Although it’s good to have the ability to be flexible, a certain amount of preparation is necessary and advantageous in life so that we don’t live in constant chaos and to give us a certain measure of accomplishment. It’s in that spirit that I bring up the subject of Christmas three months out, at the beginning of October.

Part of this year’s Christmas theme will be devoted to the spiritual aspects of the December holidays (such as love, joy and peace) and less on the materialism and consumerism that is so much a part of our larger culture. And here I go in the next sentence telling you about our upcoming holiday bazaar (to be held December 9 and 16).

Yes, we will be selling things. But the goal is not a fundraiser but an opportunity to share our craft items with each other, or a way to help us stay out of the malls. I know I’m taking this time to consider my contribution to the bazaar. This year, I’m actually making some items to contribute. I have not magically become a crafter but have found, working alongside my daughter, that we are really enjoying giving as gifts some really cute and cozy fleece blankets we’ve been making together. We’re planning on making some to sell at the bazaar.

I know lives nowadays are really busy. And it’s hard to change completely. But if we cooperate and plan ahead, we might begin to do a little better at learning to slow down and to live our lives a little more consciously. I still haven’t accomplished this with food preparation, but our intern Carol Bodeau makes this really great soup that is healthy, delicious and, as she said, not hard to make. Knowing I couldn’t plan ahead enough to accomplish making it myself, I suggested she make it for the bazaar. I’d love to buy some homemade soup that I could serve to my family. Yum. There are many of us who have personal creativity to share with each other.

But, just as taking BART and the Muni to get somewhere might take a little more time and thought than simply driving, so might our creative sharing. I believe the results just might be worth our additional effort. I invite you to begin thinking about what you might share. Love, Katie