Every year the feeling of dread comes as I realize the holiday season is upon us once again. It was only yesterday that I took down the tree and all the decorations and here it is, time to put them back up. Seems like it will be but a minute, then time to take them down again.
Thanksgiving and Christmas were always special as a kid, but time was moving at a much slower pace back then. Up until a few years ago, the time to be Thankful and the Spirit of Christmas always had a warm place in my heart. It was a bit of a surprise in my Mom's later years, to go home and find no tree, no decorations, no sign of Christmas around her house. Even with my Dad's pleas for something, she had lost the desire. So as I too began to struggle for some of the spirit lost, I had to find my own way of rekindling the Spirit of the Season.
Every year I've complained that Hallmark Channel, Lifetime and others started their run of Christmas movies right after Halloween. Reluctantly, I began my own quest to regain my warm fuzzy feeling of the holidays by watching these movies the week before Thanksgiving. Seems that if I didn't, Thanksgiving and Christmas would come and go before I even thought of decorating the house.
Renewing my tradition this week, I wondered what it was about these movies that helped bring about my Christmas Spirit. All of the movies in one aspect or another, had the same theme, something bad will be eventually be turned into something good. I caught myself leaving before the end of the movie for that reason. So what was it about these movies that warmed my heart. It finally hit me that it was the music. Even though Christmas music sounded way out of place the week after Halloween, that's what was drawing me in.
Music has been a large part of who I am for most of my life and Christmas music has been an even larger part during the holiday season. After college, I wrote several Christmas Cantatas for my church, back home in Texas. The process usually started in the middle of the summer and ended about two weeks before the choir presented it. The music became a much stronger symbol of Christmas to me as I spent so much time pouring my heart into it.
So why did it take so long for me to realize that it was the music.
The past few years, I would rather have the sound of the TV in the background than music. I had the feeling I would miss something on the TV if I didn't have it on. I guess it was because of the times we live in. But actually I was missing out by not having the music playing to soothe my soul. And because of that lack of music, the music that stirred me, brought me back to where my spirit needed to be at Christmas. It doesn't take watching a half a dozen Christmas movies in a row to work on my spirit. It takes getting back to my roots with my Christmas music, not only listening to more, but maybe creating more as well.
They say Christmas is where your heart is. It's time I start sharing more of my Heart through the Music that I Love
and the Journey Continues......
