Considering we spent Christmas back with extended family in Nova Scotia this year, this should be my favourite memory right? Or Sophie’s first actual Christmas that she could participate in?

Well, my favourite moment this Christmas actually took place several days before: at an Irving Big Stop.

A truck stop??? Yes. A truck stop.

The Christmas holiday season leaves me feeling very detached. Black Friday shopping frenzies…trampled to death employee…people thoughtlessly and guiltily throwing money at people fundraising not even giving it a second thought at what or why they are supporting, nor care (By the way, Cure for Breast Cancer Corporation…you have a whole month…it’s called October. Really, for Christmas could you please remove yourselves from the mall so that people looking for money to help people with immediate needs – like food for the holidays – and not to pay the 7 figure salaries of your executives could get a fair shake…thanks). The holidays is such a whirlwind of shopping & frenzy that it’s over before you even know what happened. It makes me feel so detached from society and ask, what is the point?

So driving the 14 hours to Nova Scotia left me with a lot of time to think, contemplate and try to get back into the head space where I believe in the goodness of humankind, and in the simple things in life. Stopping for a bite to eat the first evening, I got the pick me up I needed.

We have stopped at Irving rest stops many times. Sure, Irving is another big corporation that Maritimers have a love/hate relationship with. But you can’t deny that at least the meals on the road taste fairly home-cooked compared to that so-called food served up by that “restaurant” with the golden arches. Normally, the mood is low key…lots of truckers and travellers shovelling down their food; their goal to get in, get out and get back on the road again…

This evening however, I was taken aback by the positive mood when we walked into the restaurant. The air was absolutely electric. People actually looked up from their meals, to give you a smile or even with no gesture at all, just a transfer of energy. You could tell everyone was in high spirits. Even though this is a busy travel time, no one seemed to be in a hurry to get going. Just a relaxed, happy atmosphere that everyone seemed to be willing to bask in for this short period of time. A room full of complete strangers absolutely connected just by sharing their own good will and intentions through their energy. There was a cranky toddler at one end of the restaurant, but no one paid any mind (you usually see at least one person annoyed by the incessant crying). In fact I witnessed a lot of sympathetic smiles in the direction of the young tot.

After the hour we spent there, I felt immediately renewed, my faith restored in the simple things in life. I sat back in the van & enjoyed the passing Christmas lights that bounced off the pure white snow. Rick & I both remarked what a pleasant drive it was when we reached the hotel that night.

My Facebook pal, Sarah Smith shared this passage. I read it just before we left, and it was just what I needed to start the renewal I so needed. I share it with you now in case it fills you with the strength that I so needed right before the holidays:

Materialists & Spiritualists

“All those materialists who have never done anything to make their inner world habitable think only of amusing themselves in the outer world. As soon as they find themselves in their own company they’re bored; it’s inner poverty. Spiritualists, on the other hand, know how to make their inner world so orderly and beautiful it lacks nothing: poetry, colours, music… everything that’s beautiful is there, and they suffer when they are forced to ‘go out’ and leave this beauty behind. So now, think about it… How much time do you spend with others? A few minutes, a few hours. And how much time do you spend with yourself? All the time, day and night. Well, don’t you think it’s much more important to improve the place you never go out of? Why do you allow your inner space to get so run down, like a hovel, or like an attic where the windows are broken, where spiders are walking across the ceiling and the mice are having a great time.”

~ Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

Namaste all, & Happy New Year. Thank you Sarah, for reminding me why I am the way I am…

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