You have a choice. You can choose to press the pause button when you realize that those negative thought loops are running. You can, at any moment, pause and breathe and anchor yourself instead in the peace that is always present. Our awareness of God as One Power, Omniscience, Omnipresence, and Omnipotence Itself, means that anything unlike the Love that God is, the Peace that God is, the Joy that God is, is simply an erroneous, habitual thought that has taken up residence in the biological circuitry of your left brain. We think those thoughts because we've always thought those thoughts and they have created mental ruts. We see December 25th approaching and our brain goes on autopilot- must shop for the perfect gift, must cook the perfect meal, must create the perfect Norman Rockwell Family Christmas Experience for everyone. Actually, you don't have to do any of those things. You always have the option to pause. You always have the option to remember Truth. You always have the option to breathe, turn within, and deny that outer cultural expectations have any power to disturb the calm peace of your soul. You can then focus on the Christ Consciousness that is the Truth within you. You can also choose to rest in the awareness that the same Christ Consciousness that is within you is present within the ex-in-laws, Uncle Joe, Aunt Susie, Sister Jane, and even those who market the gifts that will be forgotten long before they are paid off.

Spiritual growth is not an additive process but a subtractive one. We don't need to get more stuff or do more things to get more peace. We simply need to pause and remember the all-sufficiency of the Christ within us. The traditions may (and probably will!) continue. Uncle Joe may still drink too much. Aunt Susie may repeat her rant. The grandkids may not wake up at your house this year. AND- you can still give yourself and your loved ones the most perfect gift: the peace of knowing that, in Truth, all is perfect. All is complete, all is whole, just as it is. Peace is here now.

As always, I am thankful and appreciative of your willingness to explore these ideas. I do know and appreciate that you have a lot of things on your to-do lists that really are important, and that you have a genuine desire to facilitate the growth of the awareness of the Christ consciousness in our world. Your willingness to continue to show up and aim yourself in the God-ward direction is clear demonstration of the sincerity of your desire to be the Love that God is in expression. Just in case no one has said "thank you" to you for that intention lately, please allow me to do that. You are a necessary and irreplaceable portion of God made manifest, and you have important work to do. Thank you for being willing to do that work!