Making Room
/The waitress comes to fill my coffee before I’ve had a chance to take a sip. With my mug full of my old coffee, there was no room for the new. Christmas carols play above, and I listen clinging to my mug with both hands and listening to the music as if kneeling at an altar rail.
The Christmas season can be like juggling emotional hand grenades. The highs are so high, and lows so low. The songs that surround us, many of which are set in minor keys, invite us into a seasonal descent toward thoughts and feelings we often ignore, or deny. Rather than avoid such a melancholy pilgrimage, I dive in, dive down and think about the people I miss and the memories that feel too distant. It’s like reaching into my soul with an ice cream scoop and removing the sediment that’s built up over time. It’s not easy work, nor comfortable, which is probably why people avoid it with stretched smiles, artificially stimulated joy, and calendars too full to reflect.
There’s a strange relief on the other side, however. It’s as if my soul has more room to breathe when I clear out the old and make room for the new.
The waitress returns and, this time, there’s room in my mug.
Do you ever have melancholy thoughts during this time of year? If so, do you ignore or deny them, or do you allow yourself to feel the feelings?
In what way can you make time this season to make room inside?
Pick one of your favorite Christmas songs and sit still for the whole thing, letting your heart and mind go where they will.