Christmas wasn\u2019t how I expected it to be. But that is totally fine. Every year this old romantic Festive Energy arises within me, these exciting images of snow and warmth and inner sparkles and the sweet sound of Bing Crosby, and I just enjoy it, deeply. The Christmas I always dream about doesn\u2019t even come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"\n
Christmas wasn\u2019t how I expected it to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that is totally fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every year this old romantic Festive Energy arises within me, these exciting images of snow and warmth and inner sparkles and the sweet sound of Bing Crosby, and I just enjoy it, deeply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Christmas I always dream about doesn\u2019t even come close to the real thing, and it probably never will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But then again: there is no such thing as the real thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christmas is an idea with a personal flavor, just like everything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, that can be good news, bad news, and everything in between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s up to us to either get confused by that notion of exclusive perception, the amazing inner mirage or just profoundly feel it and acknowledge it, so we can jump back into the human game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many spiritual seekers get stuck somewhere along the line after their first realizations because they like what they have seen and don\u2019t want to lose it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Waking up to your true nature comes with a responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The responsibility of not being an asshole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The responsibility of not spoiling other people\u2019s experiences by telling them everything is made up and \u2018it\u2019s just your thinking\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which may be true, in a technical sense, but which is also EXACTLY the point of being alive as a human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the way: of course there\u2019s no such thing as a responsibility either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I just made that up, because I enjoy making things up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not really real, but it\u2019s exactly real enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I just enjoy my personal fantasy, my Hollywood version, and that is that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just like my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The one that doesn\u2019t really exist but really feels like it does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is tremendous freedom in making it up the way you like it, change it if you want to, and believe it because you can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So Merry Christmas to you, or any other symbolic representation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Make it a good one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You are here anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
--<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Photo by @kate_gliz, for Unsplash)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[97,117,100,116,113,103,112],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45857"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45861,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45857\/revisions\/45861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}