This holiday season, let your presence be the present.

When you are living in the moment and present with those around you, you are a gift to all those you come into contact.

It is easy to get caught up in the holiday frenzy and experience stress. Sometimes, we catch ourselves thinking, “When I finish the following items on my to-do list, then I will able to relax and enjoy the holiday.” But we’ve come to learn this is a false belief—the only real time is now. We see this particularly in the eyes of our children, who naturally live in the moment and, therefore, don’t understand having to put up with unpleasant means just to get to an end. Justifying our frazzled, harried states as necessary to eventually achieve the perfect peaceful holiday is a flawed idea. On a practical level, the “end” or that “perfect” peaceful day doesn’t really exist, at least not in an external reality. No matter how much we prepare, there will always be something to think about, more to do, or, often, an unexpected glitch. It’s important to recognize what matters is the present moment. Our sense of peace comes from within. How we experience the means or the process is our life and, therefore, is our holiday.

We each have the opportunity to be in the holiday spirit in every moment, whether we’re wrapping presents, sitting around the tree with family, in line at the grocery, or driving in holiday traffic—it is all the same. We may practice peace, celebrate, and enjoy the miracle in each of these ordinary moments rather than sacrifice or be stressed out in hopes of some future return.

How we are with ourselves and others leading up to the holiday celebrations is as important, if not more than, the perfect gift, precisely wrapped presents, the ideal meal, etc.

You are the holiday greeting, the message, and the gift, so be peaceful, joyful, and loving.

Full story at: Let Your Presence Be the Present « Positively Positive.

My passion [as I have expressed many times on this blog] is to find and share the best thoughts I can. In business, I teach others to do the same. For those of you who don’t know, I do this work out of 100-year-old farmhouse in rural Wisconsin. My only connection to the Internet is a Sprint cellular modem. This means that I’ve had to become pretty efficient. Over the years as to how I use the limited bandwidth I have…

Our Internet connection at the best of times is barely fast enough to deliver low-quality streaming movies via Netflix or Amazon [if we shut off all the other Internet devices in the house]. Yesterday, we sat down to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” and the Internet connection was even worse than usual. After checking all the usual problems, I called Sprint and discovered that the tower on the south side of Algoma was out of order reducing our internet speeds to dialup levels! The horror of it all — I have been reduced to mere mortal status without a reliable Internet connection…

I’m taking this as a sign from him the Uni-verse that I should get off the Internet and focus on family so with that, I sign off wishing you and all the people who matter to you a happy and healthy holiday filled with all the things that matter most to you!