The hustle and the bustle of the season has almost come to an end. People are everywhere buying their last minute gifts for this person and that person. The traffic is beyond ridiculous and the peace and quiet that I seek seems to be a bit harder to find. These are the moments that I have to remind myself to stop and reflect on where it is exactly that I can find the quiet. There is a spirit of peace and calm that comes with the beauty and wonder of the Christmas season. As society would have us believe, it so much easier to fall into the trap of counting down the days to the end of such a busy season. Just a few more days and Christmas will be over. There will be no more crazy lines of people searching for the perfect gift. The incessant wants and needs of little ones near and far will be fulfilled and perhaps it will be some time before there is another much wanted prize that must be obtained. There will be less traffic and the eta to work will lessen as traffic flow becomes more manageable. There are so many things that we wish we could change we somehow forget to be thankful for all of the little yet great things that happen during this time of the year. To have eyes and ears to see these moments makes them all the more apparent in our day to day life. Allowing oneself to be caught up in the peace and beauty instead of what we can’t always change makes for a wonder filled season that can quickly change the world for the better.
These moments are everywhere. The other day at the Bucks I found myself having to breathe and do some serious soul searching to find one of these beautiful moments. The line had been wrapped around the building from the minute we had opened the store, two people were out sick and I was far from feeling my best. I was tired, hungry, grumpy, stuffy, and frustrated that I was yet again having to face the masses with a smile upon my face and sweet tone to my voice. The absolute last thing that I wanted to do was be nice to a bunch of people that I (at that moment) could have cared less about. Why should I be nice and efficient and have care about anything in the world? If one more person came in and demanded one more thing from me I was going to lose it. One of my customers came in and said you know why I come here right? I said well hopefully it’s because we make good coffee. My customer replies it’s because you make me smile and everyone here is always so nice! I like coming here because you make even the worst days better. Trust me Sara there have been some bad days. I thanked him and told him he had single handedly turned my day around. If he hadn’t taken the time out of his day to make sure we knew he appreciated us I would have kept on with my downward spiral and been grumpy all day long. I was reminded at one of my worst moments to be mindful of just how much one smile or kind word could make the world a better place. Sure I say it all the time but how often do I really and truly put what I say into action. As the day progressed I found it easier to make a connection even if it was a small one and I was rewarded by smiles all the way around. Try smiling at someone, it is almost always a guarantee they will smile back and hopefully will return the favor somewhere out in their day. The spirit of quiet calmness and peace can be found when we least expect it. To be humbled when we least expect it reminds us that even the smallest acts can have the biggest outcomes.
These moments are present everywhere. We have two choices when it comes to walking this earth with our fellow human beings. We can react or we can respond. When we respond we become open vessels to being the peace and the change in the world we live in. Reactions can be volatile and unpredictable and the outcome can vary from situation to situation. To respond can mean seeking something greater than our own personal goals at first. When I find myself frustrated with a situation or even a person the last thing that I want to do at times is respond would it not be easier to just react in whatever emotion it is that I happen to find myself in at the time? Responding takes effort and reflection to what it is that I know I should be responding to. But as my mom always says if everything were to come easy everyone would do the same thing over and over again. There would be no growth and no one would have the opportunity to learn something new. The peace that we seek would not exist because we would already be living in it. We would have no scale to measure the quiet that is found when God whispers and actually stop and listen to where it is that He calls us. That perhaps that gentle calling to be more than we thought possible is carried far beyond the Christmas season. That all hustle and bustle moments are allowed to us, so we can see the difference in each season that we walk. That we only need eyes to see the beauty and the wonder of the world we live in. That we are called to bring so much more to each day than we ever thought possible. That we each can find the peace we desire in any season we find ourselves in. The Christmas season being one of renewal and hope that we need to seek to be the change in the world that we live in.