Christmas: A Time of Year or a State of Mind?

My sister and I were away in Oman December 2011 visiting our father. Because of that we could not celebrate Christmas with our Mother in England for some very obvious reasons. Therefore we are celebrating Christmas 2011 now. Starting from the twenty fifth of January we have been celebrating our Christmas at home and I have to say that so far it has been one of the best Christmases we've had in years. This fact made me start thinking.

There are lots of songs that are played around about the Christmas season that include lyrics about how good it would be if Christmas could last all year but many people seem to put a lot of effort into making one specific day a year special 'family' time and let it go the rest of the year. Having been made to celebrate Christmas a month late has made me realise that Christmas is in fact not a question of a time of a time of year, rather it is a question of care, compassion and forgiveness. In short, Christmas is the time of year when we are inclined to share time with our family, putting aside all the grievences that we normally harbour and going the extra mile to make sure other people are happy before we look to our own happiness. Whether this time of year happens to be the twenty fifth of December or the first of June should, to my mind, matter not at all.

So here is a new challenge to my readers. This year try, with other putting up the decorations and giving presents, make a Christmas day every month and just see how it affects the way your family lives together. I hope that you are pleasantly surprised.

Respect

Just had a highly interesting and fun Christmas holiday in Oman and it got me thinking. One of the best things about Oman is that, as long as you wear a T-shirt that covers your shoulders and chest and longish shorts, they don't mind women not wearing the complete body cover and as long as you are not obscene in public, they are very tolerant of other peoples customs. Their attitude is 'they do what they do, we do what we do'.

It appears to me that if more people in the world would cultivate this attitude in themselves and others, we would stop fighting so much about our differences and start talking more about our similarities. It would also mean that we would have more access to some of the beautiful places in the world to visit. However, part of this idea rests on people being tolerant and respectful of other peoples beliefs and attitudes. This means not forcing our beliefs and ways of government on other people. If we give respect, eventually respect will be give in turn.

To start this change in the attitude of the world, the first place to look is your own home. Do you give respect to the other people of your family?