Walmart Feeding Frenzy......

Look, Charlie, let's face it.

We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket.

It's run by a big eastern syndicate, you know.

Lucy from a Charlie Brown Christmas

I've been thinking alot lately....about what this season is supposed to be about...

and

I look around searching and thinking and wondering...

.

The story began....

long ago,

under a star,

angels and smelly shepherds not dressed in bathrobes but real honest to goodness angel and shepher attire,

good tidings,

kings bearing gifts,

baby...

little tiny baby...

laying in a manger....so small but so holy....nine lbs...six ounces with tiny ringlet curls.......(oops...that was Talledega nights...see how the stories get all intertwined..)

Much like our world now...the setting of the story was chaotic.

Taxes were high, fear was everywhere, the story even goes that they were killing the baby boys ....

(sounds like the writers stole from the Moses story if you ask me)

and

today..

I watch...

The malls are over run with anxiety filled folks

looking for just the perfect gift,

honey hams are on sale,

red poinsettias line the aisle at Kroger.....

and

when I drive by The Walmart...and

I swear it looks like a bunch of hungry piranhas in the parking lot

gathered around the first body dropped in a long while.....

a feeding frenzy of sorts...

and

the world feels just as chaotic and crazy as the ancient times....

and

I sit here...

still the Christmas tree is in the storage area,

no lights are strung,

no cookies are baked,

and

no presents have been bought......

am i a scrooge this year (bah...humbug)

For those of us with Christian roots who feel this way,

a bit of shame for not celebrating

the birth of the baby

floats around us like the dust that floats around PigPens's body ..just a bit anyway...

Is there more to Christmas than the feeding frenzy in the Walmart parking lot?

I sit here wondering...

wondering what this ritual is really about

and

what it really means to people these days...

I love getting a day off from work,

I love being with my family,

I enjoy lights,

and

I like giving my children gifts....

Christmas movies make me feel warm and mushy,

and

the smell of cookies baking give me an at home feeling but

I want more than the Walmart Feeding Frenzy Christmas this year.....and I'm not sure I know how to find it....

but

I'm trying.

The baby...tiny baby in swaddling clothes, born in a miraculous kind of way we are told,

during a crazy feeding frenzy of a tax season

has to teach us more than

presents and trees and lights.....don't you think....

or

why else do the Christian boned people and non christian boned people celebrate it

with such large vigor all these years later.

Tiny baby

lying in a manger

dressed in swaddling clothes

hope...

bringing teaching about

loving our fellow human,

breaking down boundaries,

touching the untouchable

and

being a vessel of love and healing and hope.....

I think,

amongst all my confusion and disgust with the season...

I think

perhaps...

the tiny baby...

and

the wisemen and wise women who surround

all of us

can

lead us to a place of new horizons,

new love,

new vision....

if

we follow the star,

(not the Christmas tree star or the star in the sky)

but

follow that star that

leads us to new growth, new hope, new vision

and

renewed vigor

for

living and hanging

and

touching

each other...

hope for a world

filled with peace, love, grace and mercy.

May we all...

breath in a new breath

and

allow the star...

the bright beckon

to lead us

toward

hope, joy and love...

I'm gonna keep searching...

but

I feel deep inside

that

this season,

this sacred time

is supposed to be...

more than the Walmart Feeding Frenzy..

may we all find

what IT really is.

blessings

and hugs.