Greetings of Peace and Joy This Holiday Season

On Christmas last year we flew from Cairns, Australia, to Auckland, New Zealand. This Christmas we'll be flying from Nairobi, Kenya, to Cairo, Egypt. It's not exactly the traditional Dec. 25th we've experienced in past years, but we're again looking forward to seeing a part of the world we've long wanted to visit. When I return I'll undoubtedly have some stories to share.

In the meantime, I hope the articles below can help you let go of some of the "ought-to's" you've accumulated over the years and get through the season with greater joy and peace—and less pressure.

If you click here, you'll see the greeting I've selected for you, you'll see what I wish for all of us in the coming year.

Also, in relation to the book review on the right, my wish is that we can become open to the river and not be caught by the well that is fed by the river.

Arlene Harder, Founder and Editor of Support4Change

EXPANDING YOUR VIEW OF GOD

This time of year, when many of us attend church and synagogue services, it may be valuable to consider how we can be "spiritually challenged" rather than only "spiritually nourished," as Paul Coutinjo, SJ, discusses in his excellent book, How Big Is Your God?: The Freedom to Experience the Divine

Drawing upon his life as a Jesuit priest and his experience growing up in India, he shows how we can get "past religion as we know it and toward a relationship with God that can change the way we think, love, and live." For example, he writes:

"Meister Eckhart, the great medieval mystic, believed that everyone needs religion as a well to take them to the river of God's love and divine life. This is a wonderful analogy. Wells are fed by rivers of life-giving water, but how often the well—and not the water it can provide—becomes the goal of our lives. Since we are seeking a big God, let's ask ourselves: has the well become the goal of our lives? . . . Many of us settle for the comfort and security of the well without realizing that the river exists. . .

"Psychologist Carl Jung told us that the river of life, the river of divine love, springs forth in different places. Each time this spring is discovered, people immediately build a shrine to protect the life-giving water and make it the property of the guardians of religion. Soon there is a fee, and, of course, some groups of people are kept away from the life-giving spring. The water is not happy and so disappears from there and springs forth in another place, and another place, each time it is enshrined."

How to Stop Unnecessary Guilt From Ruining Your Holidays

If you tend to burden yourself by designing a holiday that requires more effort than you really want to expend, in Designing a Guilt-Free Holiday you will find some tricks for getting out of the guilt-producing mode.

Learn to Accept Your Family Just As They Are and Not As You Believe They "Should" Be

What can you do when your family is less than perfect (as is true for most of us) and a get-together is being planned? Gathering the Family for Love and Healing offers some good advice to consider before the company comes.

Don't Rush Into 2008 Without Celebrating 2007

If your energy is depleted by holiday festivities, you can still celebrate the end of the year that is closing without having to give or attend a fancy party. Celebrating the Year That's Ending tells you how

When Making Meals and Baking Makes You Irritable

A "stress buster" called Preparing Dinner Can Actually be Enjoyable With This Approach show you how to reduce tension when you are preparing dinner in the midst of shopping and wrapping presents.

When You've Been Hurt, Perhaps This Holiday You Can Open Your Heart to Love Once More

The ending of our first love can close the heart to future relationships if we don't allow ourselves to be open to new relationships that can be even better for us than earlier ones. The article on Opening the Heart After You've Been Wounded gives hope for the future. Included on the page is a sidebar of Who Gives Us Freedom?

If You Can Laugh and Love in the Face of Life's Trials and Tribulations, You Can Get Through This Holiday Season Just Fine

In Love is Patient With Life's Difficulties you can learn that it is possible to laugh at the hardships that enter every life, and also at life's absurdities in this crazy world.

How Much Might You Lose If You Can't Take a Few Seconds to Zip a Purse?

In our activity-packed, over-busy lives (which always seem to get busier during the holidays), we all need ways to slow down, even if only a little, as this article on Making Time for Zippers points out.

Wouldn't the Holidays Be a Good Time to Practice the Art of Listening?

In Going Beyond Ordinary Listening: "Listening Plus" you can learn how to communicate so fully that your partner can't help but pay attention and listen to every word. The sidebar is titled Friends Who Rekindle Your Inner Light.