It’s the season to be jolly.
Of course there are many reasons we can point to in an effort to negate this sentiment. You name them, and I will say you have a point. But after all these have been listed I will be silent in due recognition of their validity, and then I’ll declare again… It’s the season to be jolly!
Life throws us many curves - some bring us a sense of joy and imbue us with a sense of enthusiasm, others generate a sense of sadness and melancholy. At the end of the day we have a responsibility to determine which set of circumstances we will allow greater play in the ongoing adventure which is our life.
No one can determine for us which set of circumstances will become the template for our social and spiritual existence, but Wisdom dictates that we should choose that course of being that will result in the good health of ourselves and those who are part of the world in which we live. To do otherwise is to bring grief and pain where these could very well be avoided. To be sure, we, for reasons that are myriad, do not always choose according to the dictates of Wisdom. We make crazy choices based on the fragility of our egos… and we inevitably suffer the consequences. Oh that we would disengage from such egoisms.
I do not know what the circumstances are that will determine what choices you make. I am not privy to the foibles of our fragile egos. Of one thing I am convinced however… our destinies, for better or worse, are the end product of the choices we make from one small circumstance to the next. Choose wisely.
The sentiments we cultivate become flesh and live themselves out in our lives. The many seasons of our lives teach us about the wisdom of good choices on the one hand, and the painful folly of bad choices. A season to be jolly is by consensus the wise choice at this time of year. Give yourself permission to live into it.
