Gifting Grace 🎁 part 1

My plan for a peace filled holiday season.

Dear Friends,

It’s a busy time of year and I’m grateful that you chose to spend a little bit of time with me today. If you are a new reader, Welcome to Seeking the Sacred Self. 😇

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Gifting Grace 🎁

Today, I’d like to share the first part of my Gifting Grace post series (well, if you can call 2 postings a series 🤓). It’s part of my plan for finding more peace this holiday season.

I’ve starting my holiday planning a little late and my lists seem to be growing by the minute. But today, we finally got out and went Christmas tree shopping as our first order of business. It’s funny, I never thought I’d refer to Christmas shopping as “business”, but there it is. Has the holiday season really come to this?

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

For me, the true spirit of the season is about sharing the best of ourselves with others in love and peace. A shining of our inner Light as the reflection of our Source, manifested in and through us. It’s truly a spiritual experience not a business transaction.

But we can all lose sight of this at times. As our lists grow longer and our focus is drawn to all that glistens and glitters, it’s easy to forget about the true gifts we are giving.

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🌟 Our Enlightening Experience 🚗🎄

Last night, we were finally able to go Christmas tree shopping. My husband was away over the weekend and so we were happy to have a family sit-down dinner at a local Mexican restaurant before our search. There was an abundance of good food and family chatter. My kids enjoyed catching him up on all the happenings he missed while away. It was a fun and relaxing dinner at the end of a long work day.

Then, we went 🌲 tree shopping. Our search began with excited anticipation of all the beautiful a trees we might find. As a family, we love voting on which favorite 🤩 tree we will ultimately buy. So, we were pretty disappointed when our first stop didn’t even have trees left. We couldn’t believe it. But we were undeterred. Fueled by a good meal and the joy of being together as a family searching for that perfect Christmas tree, we headed to the next location.

By the time we reached our third store, it had gotten late (for a school night 🤓) and a cold-front had began blowing into town. We were happy to be searching, even singing a couple of Christmas songs along the way, but the long day was beginning to slow us down. And we were not prepared with jackets for the colder weather. 🥶

Thank goodness we found the perfect tree 🎄on this last stop. We paid and carried it into the parking lot sharing the load. We were happy but tired too. As we talked through the fact we didn’t want to transport it on the roof of the car. We tried various ways of getting it into the car. (Thank goodness we didn’t have a nine foot tree.) ☺️

Photo by Elena Bocharova on Unsplash

Our Christmas cheer turned into something that felt like a chore. We wanted to work together but also do things our own way. After all was said and done, the tree found a safe 🚘 travel spot but we were left feeling a little more than annoyed at each other and silence ruled the drive back home.

I thought about how our “gifting” (the give and take) is being done every single day. In every moment. And it’s not just at the holidays that we “give.” Every day we show up as daughters, sons, husband’s, wive’s, father’s, mother’s, any time we form part of a human relationship, or make a connection (no matter how brief), we are giving of ourselves.

We share our Light with the world.
But only we can choose how we show up and “give.”
We can choose to give love, or hate;
come in peace, or aggression;
be quick to judge, or offer understanding.

🏠 Arriving back home was also pretty quiet. Funny how quick and easy we were able to get the tree out of the car and into the house. The rest of the night was equally quiet until it was time for bed.

We have a tradition of saying our prayers together and giving thanks for something we were grateful for in our day. Well, last night before our prayers, we talked to our kids about how things had not turned out the way we would have wanted. We apologized for having allowed our frustrations get the best of us. We explained that we understood they were also cold and tired. We told them we believe they also have valid and valuable things to share and contribute. They are loved no matter what.

We all shared that each of us is just as important and valued as the rest. And saying our prayers 🙏 that night, after clearing the air between us, we all agreed that the beautiful Christmas tree and being together as a family was the best part of our day.

What are you gifting today?

🫶🏻 Keep shining my friend,