What are you seeing this week, as you look about you? There is lots of sparkle, decorations aplenty, shops groaning with an over abundance of food, plastic tat, Christmas jumpers. 

How focused are you on what is directly in front of your own line of vision: lists, planning, shopping, decorating, organising/facilitating/attending Christmas events…..sometimes, all we can see is the list of What Needs Done. 

Perhaps this week, we can choose to look around us. To lift our heads from our own busyness, to see beyond our immediate needs in the last few days before the Big Event. 

Perhaps to take time to see people around me in the street or in shops, and take time to say hello, or make eye contact, or simply smile rather than just hurtling past or seeing them as a nuisance because they are In My Way.

To try to see under the surface of those closer to me, to notice body language and posture that might be clues to tension and frustration. To see what is really going on, rather than simply seeing on the surface because I am too preoccupied with what is Next On My List.

And to choose to take time each day to stop, and see what is really important to us THIS day, THIS Christmas – be it the meaning behind Christmas, the importance of family and friends, appreciating good health. 

To see and celebrate what IS rather than what ISN’T.

A Christmas gift indeed.