Mele Kalikimaka, a very Merry Christmas to you today.
There is a quiet, me-time moment I cherish greatly each Christmas Day, one which fills me with wonder and a uniquely recurring faith. Over the years, I have come to know that it is in this moment I understand the power and strength of belief.
It happens early morning when I first wake up. I lie very still with the immediate knowing of what day it is, and what had happened in a peaceful, light-filled stable so long ago. During that moment, I say a silent prayer which both humbles me and fires me up with an energizing vitality.
It is Christmas morning, and to wake with the trusting certainty that the day ahead will be joyful warms me thoroughly no matter how chilly it might be.
It is Christmas morning, and I remind myself that the plentiful possibility I have ahead of me is the true gift we all get today. They are life-living freedoms.
It is Christmas morning, and I smile. I jump out of bed to get the day started, relishing every expectation I have. I imagine feeling this swelling capacity in my being, fiber by fiber.
It is Christmas morning, and I’m giddy, barely containing laughter now. I am remembering other Christmas mornings in years past, many of them, magic ones, when I believed in Santa Claus.
Back then, I had often wondered why the Baby Jesus didn’t have a Christmas tree there in the nativity stable, at least not in any of the pictures I saw. I remember my dad trying to explain to me that what He did have, was grace. It was okay that he didn’t have a tree.
So in my Christmas morning moment now, I always pray for grace. I believe my grace is possible too, there with all the other wondrous possibilities we get today.
It happens in my Christmas morning moment, all of it. And again, I believe.
I am so thankful for you, and that you spend your time with me here as you do. I hope the magic of my Christmas morning moment is something you will also feel in your own way, feeling the happy bliss of it over and over again each passing minute of this special day. I hope it bathes you in blessings and surprises you in its wonder.
Believe the possibilities are there, for they are.
Believe in your grace, for you have it too.
Let’s keep this feeling close to us a bit longer. Celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmastime with me.
On the first of December three years ago, I wrote an article called My Aloha Virtue List. It held brief descriptions of how I defined hope, freedom, humor, prayer, vitality, wonder, trust, faith, grace, gratitude, joy and peace as virtues. Just as you know me to insist about ‘management’ and ‘leadership,’ I think of virtues as nouns begging our action to make them verbs.
The article quickly became the most frequently visited posting I had ever written for ManagingWithAloha.com and by month’s end I added its link to the site’s in-residence listing of the nineteen values of Managing with Aloha to give My Aloha Virtue List the parking spot it seemed to have earned for itself!
In 2008: the article was updated on Managing with Aloha Coaching: In Keeping with our December Tradition: Twelve Aloha Virtues
In 2009: we bring to Tumblr and Twitter @MwAloha over the 12 Days of Christmas. Today, and the eleven days to follow, you can click your way there via the Tumblr link directly under the island of O‘ahu in my Talking Story header. We start with Prayer.
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Your gently uplifting post today reminds me of “jen” described in the book Born to be Good. Mele Kalikimaka
Sounds like a book I would love, must look it up! Mahalo nui Kare, and Mele Kalikimaka ~ a joyous Christmas to you.
Update: Woke very early this morning, and while the family still slept I played with the Gallery feature on Flickr, creating my first one there to capture other images for our 12 Aloha Virtues. As of this writing, just 3 photos to start, but I look forward to adding more there: Twelve Aloha Virtues
Let me know if you find a Flickr photo worth adding to the Gallery too: I can post a maximum of 18 photos there, and would love to have the artistry of our Ho‘ohana Community included!
Merry Christmas Rosa,
The possibilities are most definitely out there. Thank You for reminding me of that fact on more than one occasion ;)
All my very best to you and your family,
Paul
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