Christmas in Vancouver

Happy Holidays everyone! As we say in the local, all-inclusive, non-discriminatorial, vernacular in Vancouver. I love "the holidays" but I think in a kind of conflicted way. After all, this time of year has its origins in the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Being a non-practicing Irish-Catholic Canadian Agnostic such as myself there are some issues. Meaning that I was raised going to Catholic church services with my Dear Ole Dad (my Mom never attended and I am still not sure exactly why) and later decided on my own that I would not continue in that Walsh family tradition. It was not that I was opposed to the idea of a god, in fact I quite liked the idea, but I was altogether unenthused by what I saw at church (the hypocrasy in the messages, the lack of observation of the most simple of the tenants of the Bible like "judge not lest yeh be judged," etc.). Nor was I jumping in the aisles about the definitions of god that Catholocism proposes. At the time, my adolescence, I was becoming aware that my intuition was on the level of something more mystical and less dogmatic... some kind of flakey "mother nature knows best" or "the cosmos is all around us all the time," or "I am but a speck of sand in the hour glass of time" sort of thing, as opposed to a formalised set of rules written down by a bunch of dudes with no connection to my world and vested interests of their own at the time of writing. I remember very fondly some of the aspects of the church services I attended at this time of the year, but entirely on the level of sight and sound and not at all in terms of religious significance. And emphatically more the familial house born celebrations and happy traditions of a most resoundingly positive experience. My mom's incredible contributions to the season from the kitchen and her quirky ways of recognising those around her for their gifts, my Dad making eggnog and playing some gorgeous LP on his stereo and amping up his usual penchant sentimentality, my sister getting up hours before anyone else in giddy excitement at what Santa Claus may have brought her, stupid gifts for the cats, Christmas Ice Hockey tournaments, and Lego, always more Lego, etc. So nowadays, I look forward to the season of gift giving in a very secular way. I see it as THE important break in everyone's schedule. A pause in everyone's year that puts family and friends in the focus. The time to take time so to speak. I guess I do tend to reflect a lot more at this time of year, and I wish in a secular kind of way that I could do something more tangible to "help people" and think less of myself which is all good, but I don't ever get a chance to act on it, so around we go again. This is something I sincerely hope to change in the future. To quote a great trubabdor of our age "so this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun." I guess I just think that there will be a another stage of life for that. Like how Meg's Mom and Dad now spend a lot of time voluteering now that her Dad has retired. Something like that. I guess I am saying is that Christmas to me is all a bit warm and cozy, secular and ambiguous, fuzzy and family, and I love it. So, Merry Christmas All!