Join us in Celebration!

Written by: Karen Wallace
December 2, 2007

Welcome to the December 2007 Edition of The Calm Space. Can you believe it is December already?

We’re marking this month with Celebration.

Whether you’re celebrating Christmas, or simply getting through the rest of 2007, we have something for you this month.

I am thrilled to introduce Joanna Young as our newest contributor - bring us the Writing Space. Welcome Joanna! This month, Joanna shares how the simple gift of words can help us celebrate and find the “magical blend of anticipation, excitement and gratitude“.

Also in this edition - get the ins and outs of buying a techo gift with Leah (I’ve been hankering after a digital photo frame, so the reviews and tips in the Digital Space are going to turn into hints to hubby). Find out the benefits of making a list - just like Santa - with Angela in the Organising Space. Look at the beauty and meaning in celebration with Annie at the Spiritual Space. Join Chris as she celebrates something a little less festive, but eminently close to her heart at the Relationship Space. Check in with Marj as she shares her picks to help you celebrate in the Reading Space. Then pop on over to the Music Space and share your picks for music to uplift and soothe our souls.

Please take your time. Read. Explore. Leave a comment. Start a conversation.

From all of us here at The Calm Space we wish you a joyous festive celebration - filled with love, laughter and happy times.

The Power of Celebration

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.

~Oprah Winfrey

We chose our theme of Celebration this month as a way of marking and honouring the end of a year, and the hope that comes with the dawn of a new year. I am encouraging you to see celebration as a way of life - not something we do when we have time, but something that comes naturally and easily, and often.

Aussie Christmas is all about the heat, the sun, the sand and the surf…I feel that celebration is all about honour - and indeed, my dictionary definition for Celebrate agrees with me - “to honour”. We honour the spirit of the season, and we honour those we cherish by showing them how much we care. Despite the commercialism and expectations that are heaped upon us at this time of year, we can each leave our mark by observing this special time of year with ceremony and festivity.

When you put December and Celebration together, most of us think of Christmas. Of tinsel and toys, gifts and games, turkey and trees, pudding and paper, bon bons and egg nog, summer holidays and Christmas parties. And these are all wonderful and joyous. I’m a huge fan of Christmas.

Mark the passing of the year with ceremony and festivity and honour yourself and your loved ones, either quietly or with a burst of fireworks (depending, perhaps, on the type of year you’ve lived through).

Even more than Christmas, however, I’d like to talk about celebrating life. Christmas isn’t the only time of year we can show our love to those we care about. Don’t save it all for special occasions - make every day a special occasion!

As the amazing Oprah so eloquently put it in that quote above, the more we celebrate the more there is to celebrate. The little things are as worthy of celebration as the big. No matter what 2007 delivered to your door - this month we can:

  • celebrate our friends and family
  • celebrate our joys and accomplishments
  • celebrate we have made it through another year safe and healthy
  • celebrate how we’ve made a difference in the lives of others this year
  • celebrate with joy and thanks for all we are and all we have
  • spread the joy and peace of the festive season through the rest of the year

Will you join with me in celebration of being alive! It’s time to envision possibilities and, as Joanna says in the Writing Space, it’s time to celebrate the magical blend of anticipation, excitement and gratitude.

How will you celebrate?

  • use the good china because you feel like it
  • dance to the joy of being alive
  • raise a glass and toast to you
  • turn off the TV and play games with your family
  • feel the joy at the receiving of gifts and compliments
  • relish the giving of gifts with thought and ceremony
  • wave your magic wand
  • write down what you are grateful for, often
  • sing out loud

You’ll find that the more you celebrate, the more you’ll have to celebrate about… and I’ll be here dancing and singing with you during December and right throughout 2008.

Finally, I’d like to celebrate you. I celebrate you for who you are. I celebrate and am grateful for you reading The Calm Space. I celebrate the possibilities opening up for you in 2008.

Merry Christmas from my heart to yours.

Karen Wallace - encouraging you to find your own calm space | http://www.thecalmspace.com/about#karen

Comments

2 Responses to “Join us in Celebration!”

  1. Joanna YoungNo Gravatar on December 2nd, 2007 9:30 pm

    Karen, what a fantastic quote. And it captures the spirit of all the things that we’re writing about here - what a skillful editor you are!

    Joanna

  2. karenNo Gravatar on December 3rd, 2007 1:35 pm

    Thank you Joanna. You always say the nicest things!

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