Packing a Peace

This is that time during the Christmas season when I can easliy get overwhelmed. It seems like every second (for the next several days) is spoken for. In the design world everyone wants their home projects done by Christmas, and many clients will suck what little peace on Earth there is out of the planet's atmosphere to get their project through. No wonder interior design professionals don't ever have Christmas trees!

The class I was teaching ended last week and I have a stack of finals to grade. I have two museum contracts to finish up before I leave for Batesville on Wed. John's family Christmases are this weekend--Saturday and Sunday. Presents to wrap, presents to buy, and forget about Christmas cards.

This morning as I was driving to work I found myself unable to form a coherent thought as the gnatish demands of phone calls that need to be made mingled with the more ponderous thoughts of a friend who I need to spend time with because of some difficult issues she is facing.

I finally started doing the first smart thing I'd done all morning--making a list of things I may think I have to do, but that I actually don't.

My "do not" list:

- Expect that I can keep the house spotless, or even relatively so, for the holidays
- Worry about taking dirty clothes home to wash in Arkansas because I didn't have time to wash them here
- Think people I give gifts to will remember how bad the bows on my presents looked this year
- Ever put some preparation for Christmas before actually enjoying Christmas (thanks Duane)
- Worry about whether the gifts I'm giving are the "perfect" ones
- Forget that I can sleep on the 9-hour ride to Batesville
- Think that I have to do everything by myself. John is always glad to help me.

I've decided that from now until New Year's I will make a point of NOT doing anything that does not truly have to be done. And instead, I will spend what energy I would have on remembering the hope that Christ has brought to the world--including my hectic little corner. Peace on Earth, good will toward people was not an angel's recommendation or command. It was a declaration.

Peace, peace, peace!!! It is right here, right now! It isn't waiting for something better to come along and fix all that I feel is problematic. It will not push me to make room for it. I must open a big fat place for it in our home, in my car, at my desk, with my family and friends. Christmas isn't coming. It is here, and it has been in the world in an interesting way for a couple thousand years. Instead of living in the next second and then the next, I think I'll take a more Eastern view and bask for awhile in the history of a wonderful, long-lived reality and then make the most of the moment.