A Reflective Christmas

We are six days away from Christmas. And I would like this Christmas to be a reflective one. As Henri Nouwen writes in his book, “Just living life is not enough. We must know what we are living. A life that is not reflected upon is not worth living. It belongs to the essence of being human that we contemplate our life, think about it, discuss it, evaluate it, and form opinions about it. Half of living is reflecting on what is being lived. Is it worth it? Is it good? Is it bad? Is it old? Is it new? What is it all about?”

This Christmas, and leading up to the new year, I hope to be able to reflect upon the past year. I hope I can find enough time to even read all my diary entries in the last year to gaze upon the roads that I have traveled. I hope that I can be honest with myself and look at my own life critically. And Nouwen is right to say this, that it “requires great courage, because when we start looking, we might be terrified by what we see”. I also hope that by looking back, I may be able to find some of the answers that I have been seeking for some of my questions. Have I made a wrong turn somewhere with regards to my faith? And what is that sacred task that I have been called to fulfill? I would like to contemplate all these together with a careful and reflective reading of “Can You Drink the Cup?” And I believe that I can say with quite an amount of certainty now, that this is what I want for Christmas this year. I wonder if I can go out and get myself a nice looking chalice for my personal reflections! :)