Inspired by Stevens, S. (1985). Merry Christmas Everyone. Epic.
Photo by Thandy Yung on Unsplash
Who can beat a bit of Shaky at Christmas? Lyrics about snow, playing, having fun, love and seasonal greetings. Sounds like the perfect Christmas. But for most of us it’s not just the snow that might be missing from this idealised vision.
Christmas is often a time of family arguments, financial pressure and, dare I mention it, the stress of preparing the expected Christmas feast! We put a lot of pressure on ourselves when we build up expectations for Christmas as the time for parties and presents spoken of in this song.
But if we continue to listen to Shaky, we start to get just a glimpse of an alternative approach to Christmas which might just help us save the Christmas spirit when it comes to our wellbeing around family and friends this year. Shaky proclaims a desire to give and reminisce.
The one thing we can always give which doesn’t take great cooking skills, lots of money, or professional negotiation skills to diffuse family conflicts, is love. Nice thought. But where do we draw this love from during the exhausting and frantic Christmas season? Shaky suggests the old songs.
When I started to think about this in the context of friends and family, I could see how the principle of drawing on the past might make sense. We often need to draw not so much on our current experiences with people, but the joy we might have experienced in the past. Where we’ve experienced closeness to others in the past, remembering this can help motivate us through current difficulties.
But how about when those positive experiences haven’t been there. Thinking about our personal ‘songs from the past’; the stories, music, experiences and thoughts that have helped to get us through, can provide us with the perfect wisdom to help us in our relationships with others now. Even when our relationships with others haven’t been great, we are still likely to have other experiences and reflections upon which we can draw.
So, this Christmas, make sure you give yourself a little bit of time and space to remember where you’ve been so far in your own life journey. You never know, it might not only get you through the season, but it might also set you up for your new year’s resolutions.
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