I was preparing Christmas cards and barreling through the process of signing many very quickly. Somewhere in that process I had a moment of consciousness where I stopped to second-guess what I was writing. I realized there were three or four variations of valedictions which I was cycling through. They ranged from simply "Merry Christmas" to "Wishing you a Merry Christmas" to "Merry Christmas & Happy New Year" to "Blessings at Christmas".... You get the idea. I didn't have a rationale for who got which valediction, at least not a conscious rationale.
When that thought entered my consciousness it lodged firmly enough to stay with me, a niggly in my head, that kept popping up. Irritating little thought it was and is. Irritating enough that I guess I need to write about it. The underlying questions are how does one chose the valediction to use and is there a criteria for selecting a particular valediction for a specific recipient? Yes, in my spare time recently I have been burning brain cells on these two relevant questions.
Initially, I thought the answer to both questions was "it is somewhat random". But that's not entirely true. I have made a very conscious decision never to sign any of my Christmas cards with "Happy holidays", so that is step one on the decision tree. "Christmas" with a capital "C" always needs to be part of the valediction. I love "Merry Christmas" because just writing the word "merry" makes me smile. What really gets me is the fact that I was okay with just "Wishing" for some recipients and willing to offer a "Blessing" to others.
Wishing is weak, it is the equivalent of extending an invitation to visit sometime. Everyone knows that wishing doesn't make it so, and an invitation needs to have a date and time or it doesn't happen. Blessing on the other hand, connects me to the recipient on a spiritual level even as the words trail off the ink tip of my pen. As I unravelled those thoughts I realized that I needed to be far more intentional about signing my cards.
When that thought entered my consciousness it lodged firmly enough to stay with me, a niggly in my head, that kept popping up. Irritating little thought it was and is. Irritating enough that I guess I need to write about it. The underlying questions are how does one chose the valediction to use and is there a criteria for selecting a particular valediction for a specific recipient? Yes, in my spare time recently I have been burning brain cells on these two relevant questions.
Initially, I thought the answer to both questions was "it is somewhat random". But that's not entirely true. I have made a very conscious decision never to sign any of my Christmas cards with "Happy holidays", so that is step one on the decision tree. "Christmas" with a capital "C" always needs to be part of the valediction. I love "Merry Christmas" because just writing the word "merry" makes me smile. What really gets me is the fact that I was okay with just "Wishing" for some recipients and willing to offer a "Blessing" to others.
Wishing is weak, it is the equivalent of extending an invitation to visit sometime. Everyone knows that wishing doesn't make it so, and an invitation needs to have a date and time or it doesn't happen. Blessing on the other hand, connects me to the recipient on a spiritual level even as the words trail off the ink tip of my pen. As I unravelled those thoughts I realized that I needed to be far more intentional about signing my cards.
Merry Christmas from the swake!
May you experience the
Blessings of Christmas
& the wonder of miracles.
May you have moments to
Sit in the silence and light of the tree
& to reflect on God's love for you.
May you hear the gifts of song
In the Christmas carols around you.
May you seize opportunities to
Bless others this Christmas.
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