The Day You Prepared For

All month long, December has asked things of us.

It demanded planning and coordinating, spending and scheduling, cooking and cleaning, buying and wrapping, hosting and anticipating. We prepared meals, calendars, budgets, gifts, and expectations. All the while we hoped that this year would also feel meaningful, peaceful, more special.

And then suddenly, it’s today. Perhaps you have a room full of torn up wrapping paper already or you’re preparing to drive to the next destination of family and food and presents. No matter what your Christmas Day holds, the day we’ve been preparing for has snuck up and is happening.

There may be chaos, exhaustion, maybe disappointment or frustration. I hope somewhere in there you’ll find a dose of deep joy and grace. Most of us will have a mix of all of it.

What I’ve learned, year after year, though, is no matter what kind of mix that year holds, some of the best parts of this day need no month-long preparation.

Because they’re those small, ordinary moments we simply don’t take time for any other day. It’s taking a mental snapshot of little kids in PJs with wild bed heads, a familiar song playing in the background, allowing cookies for breakfast, a sense of relief that the rush has paused, and a guilt-free time to stay in your own PJs for awhile.

It’s all that life stuff we’re usually too busy or stressed to slow down and enjoy.

These simple moments can’t be purchased. They aren’t improved by one more gift, one more tradition, or one more carefully curated detail. They must simply be allowed to happen by intentionally shifting our attention - away from all those other things. We must simply notice them, instead of comparing gift opening pictures on Facebook or judging whether our gifts felt good enough or not.

You don’t need to squeeze joy out of every moment or make memories on demand. You don’t need to evaluate whether it’s “enough,” or compare this version of the day to another one from the past or someone else’s online.

Instead, today is the ultimate day to practice contentment in your circumstances instead of comparing and wanting more.

Presence in your own life, in your own day is enough. Gratitude for what is here, who is here, what has been provided, what has been carried through another year, is enough.

It's essential, actually.

Because long after the decorations are put away and the credit card statements arrive, what tends to linger most isn’t what we bought or how perfectly we executed the plan.

It’s how we felt living through it. It’s whether we were able to slow down enough to intentionally notice the good, choose gratitude, accept ourselves and others as we are, have some fun, and let the rest go.

All month we prepared. Today, it’s time to choose consciousness and live it.