Tangled Lights 2.0

We pulled out our Christmas decorations yesterday and midway through our usual behaviors my husband looked up from his arduous light wiggling exercise and said , 'Didn't you blog about this last year?....'

He asked this question just at I completed crowing my impatient scrooge mantra of, 'Can't we just throw the damn string of lights in the garbage, already?'

He was right, I had written about Christmas lights last year, but I couldn't remember exactly what I had written. I scrolled through my blog history, cued it up on my lap top and we shared a great belly laugh together as we realized how woefully predictable our life is.... and how blessed we are to have the chance to hit 'repeat' again and share another holiday with the one's that we love.

Below is last year's blog.... and even though I have a long ways to go before I evolve into Mrs. Claus, I have made a few strides :)

"You can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle these three things; rainy days, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas lights.' Maya Angelou

I wish I could sit down with Maya Angelou and ask her if the part about the Christmas lights is for sure... because if it is, I have a lot of inner work to do. On the bright side however, if tree light patience is a sign of evolution, then I married a man who is saint worthy. Every year he pulls out our Christmas lights- (the ones we are sure we put away very carefully the year prior) and they are without fail a tangled mess. He will patiently pull them into a straight line, untangle and inspect them, and if a string does not light, he will painstakingly wiggle each little bulb until he finds the one to replace. While he is deep into this lengthy contemplative Christmas light practice, I am faithfully saying my own special mantra,which goes something like this; 'Can't we just NOT put up lights this year?'

Since Maya has so clearly called my attention to the 'tangled lights' deficit that is mine, this year I will make an effort to be more evolved in my ways. Humor aside, as the holiday season proper begins, I really am going to work on my level of impatience with all things Christmas. Confession; it's not just the lights, it's the whole thing - Tree, Stockings, Elf on the Shelf, Anything red and green striped...' (It's a well known fact to anyone who knows me, that all traces of our Christmas tree ever having existed, are gone by mid-morning December 26th at the latest.)I think it is safe to say that my past behavior has not shown me to be a beacon of holiday cheer. One of my ardent beliefs in life is that the way we begin something sets the energy for how the experience will unfold. So, if I make an effort to change old habits at the beginning of the season, that new energy should take hold and carry me through, right? Well, I am going to try... and if anything profound happens in my psyche or otherwise, I will be sure to report on it here.

What does today's quote say about you?