The cousins don't want to line up along the stairs and smile for the camera in cozy new holiday jammies, wild behavior when Santa is literally on his way to town, but the grown ups are getting used to things that will not be happening again*, at least not exactly the same way.
Caroling with neighbors, an annual event - but this year with our high school kids! - felt like going to church for some spiritual support, an ad-hoc pastor in the piano keys, the kind of together that seemed as if it's always been.
Traditions evolve.
I try to imagine the boys in some future, maybe in their thirties, during the holidays. Nothing is perfect, but they are comfortable with that, doing things they enjoy and celebrating others doing the same. They find meaning in people, not things and not rituals that aren’t right for them. They are content with enough. And they are this way because they understand that more is not more when it comes at the expense of a healthy mind. That relationships surpass good china and expensive gifts.
* the last line of Tony Hoagland's poem Into the Mystery feels like a good reminder at the end of the year...
as you continue moving through these days and years
where more and more the message is not to measure anything.
1 comment:
Oh -- what wonderful pictures! Traditions evolve, but I see all the throughlines: family, friends, music, food, and sooo much LOVE.
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