The Spirit Of Christmas

In recent times, I can't help but notice that when people see me, they would remark that I have more gray hair. I mean, do they expect that my hair would grow darker each passing year? Then I look at them and found that they are not doing much better. In fact, some have wads of them. They would also often comment about a certain part of your anatomy like "Wow, your tummy is rounder" but you look back and you see that his is even rounder if not bigger.

 I mean what were people expecting when your six pack is now in unison and complete reunion and harmony as they are no longer separated. It's like a six-piece band coming back for a concert. Now, I began to see the point. People like to feel good and want you to be a member of their club. Isn't this age suppose to be of a narrower top (mind) and wider middle (waist). It's a good and bad thing rolled into one. I remember during a sales I could never find the size for trousers.

Now, I could find a few. Ditto for wrinkles. In fact, we should not consider them wrinkles. They should be aptly called creases. Wrinkles are lines formed on skin due to aging or sun exposure. Creases are lines formed due to it being folded or crushed. I bet some of us even have stretched marks formed and I am not talking about having given birth and more like eating to your heart's content. I have just realized that mine are not gray. They are more like a sprinkle of silver and a dash of platinum. All that glitters is not gold so mine is definitely platinum. Platinum is the best even for credit cards. You get it?

Every year without fail, we have the Christmas light out at Orchard Road, Marina and all the major hotels and shopping districts. Flyers and advertisements on TV, radio and the credit cards companies entice you no end on what a wonderful Christmas it is going to be for you to go out to shop, dine and spend. The flamboyance of each year's Christmas is dependent on what kind of economy we have and the bonuses and pay out from businesses. It is nice when people come together to celebrate. Life should be a celebration.

I used to make my own Christmas cards when I was young, drawing a snowman, a Christmas tree and even sprinkling those shining/glittering stuff onto patches of glue to beautify it. I graduated to buying cards. Today, all we have are these e-cards through the Internet or email.

The only Christmas cheer I love was that it signals the ending of a year of hard work and the glamour and bright lights and Christmas songs brings light hearted moments of the festive cheers of the season and its mood where you will also shortly experience the New Year with the Chinese Lunar New Year to follow suit. Last and this year's mood is going to be sombre and pensive. This year, Santa has lost weight and will be slimmer having been ravaged by the economy in Finland and his Nokia mobile phone has not been upgraded. He may have sold some or all of his rein deers.

Whether it's business or other aspects of life, in every crisis there are opportunities. The more sombre mood is giving us a great opportunity to reflect what is really Christmas. Singaporeans are mostly sure to have a couple of holidays overseas each year and shopping and eating are favourite past time. There is really ample wastage in everything from food to all kinds of commercial goods all around us. I see people dumping old furniture, electrical goods but I don't see the civic-mindedness as they dump things near fire escape routes even as they live in condominiums. You can bring a man out of the gutter but you can't bring the gutter out of the man as they say. I have to pay $20-30 to remove things from my house while others just dump them. Should I go join them? I think I should not be like turkeys but soar like eagles. Give the worker some work and small earnings.

 

Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, Christmas presents, all the music and glitter brings forth a festive mood but they are not the real reason for Christmas. The only reason for Christmas is about forgiving, giving and love. This is a very good timing to do that because when you do these things, the date is easy to remember - 25 December. Every year, you can celebrate an anniversary of forgiving, giving and love and the best part is that you have a public holiday to celebrate these joys. When you forgive, you are not just benefiting the other fellow. More important than this is the fact that you are going to take a huge chunk off your chest which you need not be carrying with you as baggage.

You walk free and light. It's like going on a free and easy holiday. Travel light everyday. This empowers you so much so that you never have to worry about future trespasses or being unforgiving again as you have been dealing so well with it often enough. For to err is human and to forgive divine then we may also need to beg forgiveness for our own trespasses. Of course it is hard to forget when some one was aiming to spit at your face, hits the knee but mistletoe. Er, I mean miss the toe. No one is perfect so forgive yourself too for example for not giving me that treat.

Giving is something more important than receiving as oppose to the view of receiving as a gain and giving as a loss. Anyone who thought otherwise has been using the human heart and head to see things. Being human is bad enough so I'm not advocating for you to be inhuman. It is just a principle and a means of passing on a joy and warmth through giving. Any gift can be good and it need not be expensive. It can be a gift of your time.

A gift of a smile, a warm handshake and a hug or simply a sincere word of encouragement. As it comes out of your heart, a small gift in whatever form can touch another person's heart and when that person receives it he is likely to pass it on and on. There is a multiplying effect and the force becomes unstoppable. Sometimes in life, you receive a kind act or help unexpectedly too. That is the gift that has been passed on and you became a recipient and benefactor and you could have been the one who started it. What goes around comes around as some would say. When you give more, the rebound effect is increased. Give, give and give, till it hurts if you must. Plant a good seed this Christmas and watch it grow. When in its season, the tree will bear fruit by ten folds and a hundred folds for many happy returns quite often when you least expects it.

Love. The global financial crisis can be deadly but come what may even with all kinds of suffering, people will still survive. But this world will perish without love. For the greatest of all is love. Love for God, love for your country, your family, your school, your organisation, your friends and your fellow man. Love is powerful. It unleashes a very potent and righteous force that can penetrate the greatest armour of hatred. Hatred is the absence of love just like darkness is the absence of light. It can be difficult but if you are a single candle in a dark room but you will light up the room even if it seems overwhelming at first. If you are a lighted candle, dipping yourself on the next candle gets them lighted too and when a whole room is full of lighted candles it becomes bright and warm.

 (Please see a previous article) - http://gforce-guru.blogspot.com/2008/11/light-candle-keep-fire-burning.html

This is like playing 3-under in golf. You forgive, you lighten your own burden and feel at peace. You give, you are blessing others and yourself and you when love you are lighting up the world. It's like your 3-in-1 coffee or job (3 persons work one salary). You get to celebrate these three pure joys of life as an anniversary every year during Christmas on a holiday.

This my dear friends and readers is the best Christmas gift and bargain you will ever get or your money back! If we can do this on tap like beer flows during happy hours, everyday is Christmas! So my dear friends and readers, "Forgive" me when I do wrong (like winning in golf), "Give" - me more strokes and "Love" me unconditionally regardless. May a thousand flowers "Bloomz" for you and your family! MJ is no longer around to heal the world and make it a better place. Tiger, whom now some thought is a moled rodent rather than role model has retreated to his own yacht Privacy. I have to step forward to be the next role model and icon to fill a void. Not sure if I could even afford a yak from Tibet much less a yacht called Privacy. If I get a yak, I'll call it Shangri-La or Lost Horizon.

Feliz Navidad!

Emmanuel means God with us.

I wish you a Blessed Merry Emmanuel Christmas to you and your family!

Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.