Holiday Break A Time For Reflection

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, who has listened to the dying for decades, has this advice for the living: “Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself. There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find the deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.”

Silence. Peace. Stillness. Our entire culture seems in conspiracy against these states of being. We can now be faxed, voice-mailed and beeped 24 hours a day.

And we are all so busy. Our datebooks have become the new status symbol in the who-is-the-busiest-of-all competition. A friend asks for a lunch date or a co-worker asks for a meeting and we whip those datebooks out and say: “I can squeeze you in …”

But there is one time when most are allowed a “siesta of the soul.” The holidays. This siesta begins when school lets out and lasts until the first working day after Jan. 1. Everyone is still busy during this time, busy with present-buying, card-writing, church-going, parties. Busy with activities that connect them to others.

What gets dropped from most schedules (except those in retail and the postal delivery service, perhaps) are meetings, projects, big plans for restructuring our schools, our offices, our lives. All these can be postponed until after the holidays.

A lovely phrase. How many times have you invoked it this week? In our workaholic culture, we sometimes need cosmic permission to opt out of the busyness. And once a year, permission is granted. It is OK to say you will get back to the seriousness of life, back to those meetings, back to those big plans after the holidays.

Most everyone loosens up a bit this time of year. People wear festive clothes and silly hats in the office. They eat forbidden foods (fudge!) without apology.

Why is this until-after-the-holidays break so important?

Sara Ban Breathnach in her book “Simple Abundance” provides one answer to ponder this Christmas Eve. She came across a piece of writing one day; its author remains unknown.

“If we must fill every moment of our lives with action, when will we have the time to make the long, slow journey across the desert as did the Magi? Or sit and watch the stars as did the shepherds? Or brood over the coming of the child as did Mary? For each one of us, there is a desert to travel. A star to discover. And a being within ourselves to bring to life.”

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rebecca Nappi/For the editorial board