christmas is an inside job

I recently went to a Christmas party at a friend's house.  I was very excited to attend, because when I was last at her house this summer, she told me that she completely redecorates her house every Christmas.  Every single decoration she has inside, which includes shelves in the kitchen of Salt and Pepper shakers are changed.  She then showed me her storage area where she stores all her Christmas decorations.  There were shelves filled with storage boxes of goodies.  Now, I am the type of person who loves anything decorated and I LOVE people who are passionate and get into something. 

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That's why it won't surprise anyone that I was so excited to see her house decorated.  Sure enough, every one of the salt and pepper shaker sets she had displayed were now changed to Christmas salt and pepper shaker sets.  Every framed picture in the house was wrapped to look like a Christmas present (I loved that) and she had at least 6 Christmas trees, every one of them themed and covered in decorations.  Walking through her house felt like living and breathing Christmas.  It was all so amazingly beautiful.

A few days later, I stopped by her house again.  This time, knowing, what the inside would look like.  As I approached her house, I noticed she did not have any Christmas decorations on the outside.  No lights, no little snowmen in the front yard, not even a wreath on the door.  This shocked me.  Knowing what the inside looked like, I thought, "no one would even know she celebrated Christmas just by looking at the outside".  And, that is when it hit me... it is not about the outside.  It is not about anyone knowing she is celebrating Christmas.  It is not even about me coming over and seeing all the Christmas salt and pepper shakers.  It is about her, her joy, and her getting to walk through her house and feel the magical Christmas feeling, all day, every day.  Christmas, like everything else, is an inside job.  It is about the internal feeling she gets when she puts up the decorations.  The memories as she tells me stories about who gifted her what and what came from her in-laws, and what was passed down from her parents.  It is about the feeling of connection.  The mementos that represent something bigger - a feeling of joy and peace, and connection.   

The thought occurred to me, because I am reminding myself more and more each day, it all starts on the inside.  Sometimes, we are so focused to get it looking right on the outside, that we forget to actually nurture and take care of the inside.  Whether it is peace, love, joy, it all has to start internally for it to actually work.  How often have you spent the least amount of time complimenting, listening, or even spending time with the people you love the most?  It happens to all of us.  Getting wrapped up in buying the perfect gift, or making the perfect Christmas dinner, and forgetting to take the time to really fulfill our insides first.  As we move forward towards a new decade, the Roarin' 20s, make a commitment to foster the inside more and not worry as much about what the outside looks like.  When the inside is aligned, the outside always follows!