Balancing Busy

With Christmas approaching I feel a lot of us (including myself) often use the statement and excuse - "December is just too busy." It's so easy to get caught up in all the gifts to make and buy for all the many people in our lives, the baking, the decorating, the events to go to, the checklist to go through...

But do we actually have to? Do we have to be pulled here and there, do we have to feel the rush and hurry? I'm not so sure this "busy rush" part of Christmas is something I want for myself or my family. But how can it be changed, how can it be balanced, how can it be removed?

I don't quite know the easy answer unfortunately, but I feel I am getting to know it.

Being so busy with events, family, friends, parties, and activity advents... do we realize how blessed we are to get to be so busy? To get those social interactions, those visits, those memories. Do we realize that for some, Christmas is the loneliest time of year? It's the month where no one has time for you, they're too busy to pop in, too busy to visit, too busy to remember to invite you, to be thinking about you, to be there for you... Or do we just assume that others are too busy too, that they don't have time for us either. This time of year is it a time when our burdens are lightened, or weighed down? Is it a happy exciting time or is it a nervously anxious time. I feel that being busy during this holiday season is only as bad as the outlook we have with the busyness. If it's not a joyous time where you can be present in the moment and event at hand, not only enjoying yourself but making other's around you joyful, then what's the point of being "busy."

Opening up the time for others including ourselves.
I've started to try and adjust my mind and my heart during Christmas. To make it a time for joyful gift shopping, for more meaningful interactions with others, and to enjoy more fully the wonderful traditions to be continued and embraced. To be more present in the occasion at hand instead of overthinking and planning the moments ahead. I'm making time for myself to be present in the moment, and be more thoughtful in regards to those around me. To take time to view those tender mercies rendered from the loving hands of others. To think more on what my Savior would do in situations and adjust to be more like him. To give of myself more to others. We often don't make time for ourselves within the Christmas season, but I also think this is important. I've started a tradition to feed my soul a bit more through December, to take the time to nourish my relationship with my Heavenly Father and in direct consequence it has helped me be there for others a little more.

Christmas is a time where busy is a wonderful blessing, and if we can't quite view it as such, then may be we could all use a little time for ourselves to get closer to the reason of the season.

Christ is the gift.



Heaven's Slice is being busy.