What do you hear?
Are you listening – to the countdown clock? Less that two more weeks. There is almost a 
palpable drum beat toward the holidays. Shopping, parties, money out, wrapping, baking, wrapping again, financial worries.
What do you hear? Your stomach is gurgling from anxiety. Your heart is pounding from the Holiday to-do list that won’t get ta-done? Raucous drunken laughter at the company Holiday party?
What do you hear? The roar of Christmas shoppers. Gene Autry’s “Rudolf” for the umteenth time. The endless additions to Christmas lists. Ringing bells pleading for money.
Are you listening anymore to the endless loops of Christmas music, crying children from too
much candy, and the endless sound of the dishwasher after another baking session?
Here’s an immediate antidote:
Stop and Listen.
That’s it.
Stop-
wherever you are. Listen for 15 seconds. Fifteen seconds brings your heart rate down. That’s it.
Listen –
for the sound that’s farthest away from you. Search for it. Find it. Listen to it for fifteen seconds. Just 15 seconds.
Listen
15 seconds.
Feel your heart slow and blood pressure stop.
For an extra bit of peace take another 15 seconds and see if your ears can hear/ find something merry.
Feel the spirit of Christmas return. Hear something bigger than Rudolf, shopping, whining, banks-
Do you hear what I hear?
A song, a song, high above the trees
With a voice as big as the sea.
Listening to the songs of the spirit,
Beth