12/04/2025
As you prepare for the Christmas holidays, expect to also feel the stress of the season. Holiday prep stress is real! This is especially true for parents and grandparents who commit to making everyone’s Christmas special.
Over years of practice, sage Christmas shoppers do most things well in advance taking advantage of amazing Black Friday sales and wrapping presents early!
Remember to maintain your health and wellness routines when pressures mount. Find time for a cozy cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows to share with a loved one or friend!
The Advent season is all about preparation for Christians. Our traditions are thousands of years old and when we open up our festivities globally, we enrich ourselves with amazingly diverse ways to prepare our families and our hearts to honour the humble origins of our salvation born in a stable in Bethlehem.
There are many prayers needed for our modern world and global zones that pine for peace. In our own little spaces, we too can find ways to ritualize the origins of our faith and hold true to what that powerful message of peace brings to us all.
For those of us born in North America, advent is distracted by shopping and consumerism coupled mostly with challenges to support local charities. Toronto is amazingly generous and in my professional experiences as social worker, I have been privileged to help make Christmas merry for so many - thanks again to the generous contributions of regular folks.
Just remember what the season is all about as you rush, spend, and reconnect. In quiet moments on your own, treat yourself to silence and stillness to reflect and pray on all that we truly have to be grateful for in a country on plenty!!!
Merry Advent - may your preparations deepen your faith and remind you what this city might be like if we failed to respond to the call of the poor! 🎅🤶
Do,Think. Feel Well