So the holidays are upon us...  With me not being a fan of them typically, it would be easy for me to drift off to some sullen and dark place to pontificate about the evils of the season as it is currently constructed.  And there is much wrong with the current construct.  Let me give you a short top 5 list:

1.  Commericialization:  The holidays are overly commercialized.  Everything that is done during this season is about selling something people don't need and can't afford to impress people they don't like with money they don't have.
2.  Shopping:  Shopping is HORRIBLE during this period.  Retailers advertize products they don't have in stock at prices they never intend to honor so that their corporate masters can give the shareholders and extra penny per share in dividend.
3.  The Rude People:  People during this period exhibit the worst traits of the human condition.  Everything from a tunnel vision obsession to a hunger to feed their narcissitic and nihilistic needs to get everything they can and then sit on the can.  The NEED to get everything on their lists drives them to the worst extremes of human behavior.  Almost every season, there are stories about stampedes that trample people that occur on Black Friday.
4.  Black Friday:  This day is the most absurd day that retailers have ever came up with.  They feature deals on products that they have such limited supplies of, that they know a mere fraction of those attracted to their wee hours of the morning sales will be able to take advantage of.  But they do it anyway, because they know that they battle is getting them in the door, so that they can buy the other overpriced crap they have plenty of.  The retailers feed the frenzy like mad, to the point in some cases, its like watching an evil villian in bond film feed his pet sharks with laser beams attached to their heads with such reckless abandon that a feeding frenzy ensues and some of the sharks eat each other.
5. Fake People:  During this holiday season I run into so many people with the fake and phony smiles and their plastic and fraudulent well wishes for me and mine.  It seems so contrived, and it makes me wonder why they bother with it.  I can see through it and if I can, I know everyone else can also.  A fake greeting of well wishes during the holidays from my perspective is akin to the Pharisee of Jesus time wishing someone with needs the best, but not actually doing anything about it.  It is something that has the appearance of loving kindness, but none of the substance.  It is in essence a white washed tomb filled with dead men's bones.

And yet somehow, I don't want to go to that place this year.  I know the terrain of the dark place well enough.  I have walked the paths and surveyed the territory.  I know its exact dimensions, and the precise location of each fortress, bastion, moat, catapult, and ballista.  I don't want to dwell here this season.  I do not wish to linger in the pastures of negativity and inhabit the abode of darkness or breathe life into the parlance of darkness.

It is my desire to rise above that this year.  It is my desire to revel in the blessings of the instance in which God has planted me.  I ache to relish this season with my family.  I am eager to hold them close, and show them how deeply loved and adored they are. 

I am overwhelmed with feelings of thankfulness this year.  I know how blessed I am.  I know where I have come from this year.  I know what my family has overcome in the last 12 months, and I am astonished at the sheer staggering volume of God's grace.  I know that I am blessed beyond my ability to contain it all. 

And I know that in the midst of all this, that it should compel a difference in my behavior.  I know that it should mark me in my exchanges with the rest of the world.  I know that it should make me more real, more genuine, less narcissitic, less nihilistic, and less pessimistic.  It should change me at some fundamental level.

And the strange thing is that it has...  It has made me cognizant of my blessings, and more understanding of others when they annoy me.  It has reminded me that it is understanding the blessings of life that happiness and dare I say joy is derrived.

And my message to all of you during this holiday season is simple.  Gather those you love close, and share the time you can with them over a meal, or an afternoon outing, or in the sublime embrace of hearth and home.  And count the rose buds of your life while you may.  The joy of the simple life is found there.

Happy Holidays....