‘Tis the Season…

“You can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle these three things; rainy days, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas lights.’ Maya Angelou

I wish I could sit down with Maya Angelou and ask her if the part about the Christmas lights is for sure… because if it is, I have a lot of inner work to do.

On the bright side however, if tree light patience is a sign of evolution, then I married a man who is saint worthy.

Yesterday, after being peer pressured relentlessly by our 12 year old son, we pried ourselves away from a perfectly lazy Sunday, and pulled out the dreaded Christmas lights- the ones we were sure we put away very carefully last year.

As usual they had somehow morphed from ‘neatly put away’ into a tangled mess… yet, as is typical in this circumstance, the hubs remained undaunted… He patiently pulled the gnarled glob of green wires into a straight line, untangled and inspected them, and with each string that did not light, he painstakingly wiggled each little bulb until he found the one to replace.

While he was deep into this lengthy and highly disciplined contemplative Christmas light practice, I faithfully blurted out my own special spiritual mantra, which went something like this;

‘Can we just get new lights, already!!??’

Meanwhile the 12 year old child who had been hounding us to decorate for Christmas was long gone… down the street with his soccer ball with nary a Christmas light related worry in the world.

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas… and I wouldn’t have it any other way 🙂

“You can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle these three things; rainy days, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas lights.’ Maya Angelou