Peace

Peace, People

Ready or not, it’s that jingle bells, party party, forced family fun, scrape the car windshield, deck the halls, don’t make me go out there again, I just want to stay home and watch A Christmas Carol for the billionth . . . time of year.

Are we ready?

The last few weeks of my sabbatical are winding down just as the holiday season kicks into high gear, and I find myself suspended in time and staring off into the distance. Like a LOT.

I’ve made great progress on my theater textbook, but it won’t be completely done by the time I go back to campus on January 5^th. I’ve made peace with this.

Denver just enjoyed its first big snow of the season, and everything (at least for today) is sparkling. So pretty. I can feel emotions rising in my throat, and my first reaction is to swallow them down.

Every. Friggin’. Year. There is something about the days from Thanksgiving through the New Year that make me feel like I’m either going to burst into song or throw myself on the couch in a fit of weeping. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone here. The holidays bring with them a smorgasbord of emotions for all.

But wait a minute. Why should that stress me out? I’m a theater nerd. We live in emotions. We thrive on wading deep into the human condition. Why would the first reaction be to hope desperately that it goes away?

I was at the doctor’s office for an annual wellness visit yesterday, and an elderly woman checked in after me and proceeded to unload an entire story on the person at the front desk. She had taken a cab to her appointment, and the radio in the car started to play Nat King Cole singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” You could hear the emotion in her throat as she explained how she burst into tears in the back seat. Most of us in the waiting room developed the same lump just overhearing her story.

“I didn’t even see it coming,” she gulped. “Suddenly, I was bawling like a baby. That was my father’s favorite song.”

Music connects us to time and place—and to each other. So do stories. Really all kinds of art bring us together and help us make sense of the world. That’s why I love it beyond words.

That little old lady bundled up in her pink hat and matching scarf and cane reminded me with one honest story how important art is and how woven into the fabric of being human.

I'm all in this year. I've decided to embrace the stories of the season, including all the emotions and experiences they bring. It’s time to find peace in the joy and the sadness and reexperience how the arts allow us to process them. Music, storytelling, sparkling lights—it’s a magical and theatrical time of year. So get lost in the emotions that the arts inspire. Drink it in. Find peace in coming together . . . and spending some quiet time alone, too.

These dark days of winter give us a huge opportunity to catch ourselves, to stop and pay attention. Listen for the music—not just the holiday tunes at the mall—the real music all around us. Wishing you all peace and joy this holiday season!