A Different Christmas

Every year Christmas comes around and adverts start to pop up selling you happiness in a gift, a moment of complete perfection. Social media turns into an invitation to buy another object which will guarantee a merry Christmas. This is why, to this day, my favourite Christmas story is the Grinch.

As years go by, the meaning of Christmas changes and in your search for the perfect gift you might lose the magic of a true gift, not a material one, an invisible one, that in a few minutes can trigger a drastic change in you. If you don’t look for it, it is very easy to become indifferent.

I had the privilege of working and studying in hospitals, working every day and every 4 days doing a 36 hour shift. I would see people in the emergency room because of pain, there were cold dawns with unending lines of people waiting to receive medical attention and the sun was the only sign of another shift completed. When my shift ended, I knew Christmas was coming because in each corner decorations would appear, in recent years there are also areas for family photos and selfies.

When I went out to get some fresh air, I would notice more and more shopping bags, more stress and I would not hear a kind “good morning” or a “Can I sit next to you?” that I wanted to hear. Only people with bags filled with things that they did not need and completely absent from the moment, making me feeling the void that we have in society.

One day looking for some fresh air, I sat on a bench, closed my eyes and remembered…

The gift that made me change the way I think about christmas… the memory of the most beautiful invisible gift which changed my life.

When I was 10 years old, my grandmother and my mother told us that we would have a different Christmas. They woke us up very early and we cooked chicken with rice but in quantities I had never seen before. When my arms would get tired, they would take my place and with so much love they would cook and cook. In my mind I would wonder, how big is the party that we are going to have? It seemed so strange that there was no tableware, no chairs… but we carried on cooking.

Around midnight they put our coats on my sister and I, the food was carried to the car and we went out to the streets. As we drove, we were looking for gorges and slums, or for people on the streets to give them some food. I found someone and I said “Merry Christmas!”. The smile I received in return and the look of that person is clear as day in my memory. When the food was gone, we went back home and at dawn a family knocked on our door to see if there was some food they could have, I don’t know where that extra food came from but it was worth it. To our surprise in the morning there were still enough for the 5 of us to have a small bite. That Christmas there was no turkey, there were no fancy gifts, but it was PERFECT.

The happiness that my mother and my grandmother showed me, of working for others, of giving some food, sharing a smile, it is the heart of what La Jardinera teaches and cultivates in us. In my day to day, I do not think about that moment but when I read the letters from La Jardinera, when I sit and meditate, I find that feeling again and I can open my eyes, hear the voices in the mall, see the decorations and start by changing myself.. This Christmas I do not want excess but I want it to be plentyfull, I only want to be able to hug my sister who is back visiting, I want to see my grandmother and give back to her that spark that she gave me so many years ago.

We each have a gift like this one, it comes in different forms and I hope that you are open and awake to observe them. I wish that one day you can live a moment of absolute love, live it with a full heart, and share it with others.