Anchors and Bridges

In my family, December is a time of refocusing, implementing traditions, and slowing down.  Whether you grew up with these same values or others, you can build your own traditions to create meaning in December and throughout the year.

Traditions are the anchors that tie the experience of our lives together, whether they are personal traditions that have been handed down through the extended family, or things that we have just put into place in our own homes.

Do you have certain faith traditions? Are there special meanings to different seasons of the year?

One of my favorite traditions for the season of Advent, leading up to Christmas, is the Advent Wreath. We always have one on the table, starting with the first Sunday of Advent. It has three purple candles, representing repentance, and the one pink candle, representing Joy. We light another candle each week, as we go through the season. It’s so beautiful how this tradition gives us a sense of stability, in that that we are doing something that millions of people have been doing for centuries, and yet we also have the anticipation of the great day that is coming and the change that the day represents.

Anything can become a tradition. Good experiences and activities that you hold onto, that have meaning, and bring a feeling of belonging are the kinds of things that become traditional. Baking a certain type of cookie for friends, decorating the tree on a certain day every year, getting together with friends for the holidays. So many good threads in the fabric of our lives.

Sit down with your family and make a list of your favorite traditions. You might be surprised at the interesting things that the other members of the family come up with. You might learn a lot about how they think, and what is important to them, by learning which family traditions they treasure the most.

Also, try to start one new tradition that begins with just your family. Talk about it together and make it a celebration!

The speed of life can leave us breathless sometimes. It is very good to have the solid familiarity of traditions and patterns in life to hold onto and to stand on as a foundation. Look at your traditions as gifts that you give, of yourself and to yourself!