Run, Run Rudolph: What don’t you want to outrun this Holiday season?
Home Alone. A Christmas classic, and a personal favorite. In infamous style, the McCallister family demonstrates a bit of our own experience during the holidays. Going along with their plans, the day of traveling to and fro comes upon them in a blink, and the next thing they know, they jump from their beds and sprint to their departing gate at the airport to the sound of “Run Rudolph Run” by Chuck Berry, another Christmas classic.
December can have this effect on you and me as well. Before we can finish up our Thanksgiving leftovers, December is on us, and we start sprinting to the finish. Squeezing holiday gatherings into the schedule, scrambling to come up with a side dish, digging out that ugly sweater, finishing coursework and finals, meeting the demands at work, tending to your family, dreading what might happen at family dinner, finding gifts, then purchasing them, then wrapping them, then giving them, and wondering if it was enough. Even receiving can feel like its own task. And all of it sits on top of your regularly scheduled program called life.
On the other side of this season, ask yourself, “What don’t I want to outrun this year?”
Those moments that actually nourish you (and not just eating cookies left for Santa!). This question can easily become another box to check on the holiday list, but what if it became a viewing lens through which you see everything else?
While you’re running, maybe pause for a second before ringing the doorbell for that gathering. Or take a moment to breathe in the chilly air after leaving a crowded room. Or take in the quiet of plugging in the tree lights before everyone arrives. I wonder what it is for you this season. I wonder what small moment or moments you aren’t trying to outrun.
Sure, each of us will get swept up in the holiday race at some point. And, rest assured, you are not doing it wrong. You’re simply human; it’s normal. And know that you’re in good company.
