Sip 34: How Could the Holiday Spirit Be with You All Year?
Thanksgiving Day is every day for those who give thanks at every opportunity. December, Christmas time, is designated for happiness, festivity, and consciousness of blessings: sharing them with each other and giving particular attention to the poor. People are more conscious between Thanksgiving and New Year’s to add a little something for those who are in need.
The challenge is to find a way to keep this frame of mind and attitude when you resume your regular life in January, after the holiday season. Whatever is worth reflecting on during a particular holiday—such as a cup of good cheer at Christmas—is also worthy of sharing throughout the year.
Wine’s history is as a beverage of consciousness. Its purpose and function, from antiquity forward, has been to help us celebrate and appreciate life.
In Christianity and Judaism, wine connects you with God. From Christian and Jewish perspectives, your gifts, talents, and resources are God-given, not for self-indulgence but for your own use and to benefit others. Embrace that, and the holiday spirit will live within you, and in your actions, every day.
Each moment is an opportunity to fill with blessing or to squander as mundane. Seasonal holidays shine festive light on how wonderful it is to bring good doings and best wishes into everyday life.
Life the way it is—with people on their better behavior primarily at designated times—does not have to remain the way of the world. In toasting the best in life, you could also reflect on changes that would make the close of the holiday season, and the start of the New Year, a real beginning, to assure that holiday blessings abound throughout the year.
