Home for the Holidays Aesthetic Inspo + Reflections

My own decorating plan is spare and white this year. I’m only a little bit sad that most of our decor and ornaments stayed safely tucked away in storage. But I’m staying true to how I desire for life to feel rather than appear. Calm and quiet even for the holidays (I know, I know!) is acceptable…no Kringle police officials will show up with warrants. Here is the sort of home for the holidays aesthetic inspo which slows my own scrolling and quiets my nervous system.

Home for the Holidays Aesthetic & Reflections

You gotta love Anne Lamott’s edgy, authentic, cranky voice of love and hope.

Hallelujah!

Here’s another Anne Lamott nugget of tender wisdom:

Quieter Elegant Home for the Holidays Aesthetic

Is it possible to skip the bold colors of traditional Christmas and choose understated natural elements?

Those old weathered floors add another wondrous layer of natural beauty.

Give us bread, but give us roses, yes?

Oh the texture and refined beauty!

The Paradox of Faith, Family & Feelings at Christmas

Right where I am, it feels as if the words of Thomas Merton are blossoming once again.

I’m thinking of that quote where he says into this world, this demented inn, there is no room at all for Christ.

Yet Christ comes into the world uninvited.

And of course I have no answers as to how the world might change to welcome a spiritual teacher bringing a gospel of love and mercy…

I can only see the places in my own life where I am not leaving room for the good news or flow of peace.

What a mix of feelings and longing at Christmastime! How do we stay tender and not grow bitter when things not of Christ permeate the holidays?

Boundless Silence & Spiritual Strength

In the past week, my spirit has pondered this boundless silence to which Ted Loder refers.

I have been contemplating the essence of God as a conversation between trees and wind, between seeds and the ground, between an infant and milk. Within those holy conversations is an infinite source of hope and quantum beauty.

There is a spaciousness I can begin to glimpse as I consider God as silent conversation. I can make space for God, for the Christ child, when I let go of all that is binding me and empty myself into stillness and silence where the divine waits.

What will I surrender this holiday season to make more room in the demented inn of my noisy, cluttered, edgy inner landscape?

Because if I am welcoming the hope of new creation, the light of the world, and a vulnerable baby, some intentional housecleaning and babyproofing is calling.

Becoming the Beauty & Healing We Seek

And I often slip into old sedentary habits. I want a hero of spiritual maturity with instructions to appear and explain how to manage the complexity of modern life and faith.

I would prefer to skip right over the wilderness, wandering, and woefully crowded inn business to get straight to the promised land.

So here is what I am doing right where I am in the wilderness of big feelings and demented inn of information overload at Christmastime.

I’m simply asking for more grace. More grace to see more clearly. I want to see what lies beyond the immediate, all too familiar impulses and feelings. In a certain sense I am pressing an override button or a pause button.

I’m honoring self-compassion in the sense that I am built in such a way or have reached a particular age where it all feels like too much because in fact it is. And I can go to a boundless ocean of silence…and this is an important distinction, I can go NOT for consolation or answers, but to align with what is true, noble, good, and alive.

Silent Conversations Within Us & Beyond Us

It’s that place of spacious beauty in the silent night of Bethlehem where there is no room at all for new life emerging, where the stable door of my heart may open.

When our circumstances grow more challenging and the culture, or the world, or our relationships and resources do not offer the space we need to heal and transform…

a silent conversation is ocurring between mitochondria in our cells, between neural synapses, and even across fiber optics.

There’s silent conversation flowing all the time, and when we rest and say yes to its invitation, restoration can also flow.

Am I simply meditating for hours on end as I navigate wilderness living?

Goodness, no. But slowing down increases awareness of what I need in a particular moment. A glass of water, music, some gentle stretching, performing an act of service for someone else, a short walk, a phone call to a friend?

Opening to Change & the New

I cherish the quote above from Octavia Butler. It challenges me to remember how often I am resistant to change. Yet God is ever coming to me as change.

What stance will I take to be most teachable?

You better believe Anne Lamott has ideas for me!

How will I see more clearly the blessings in the wilderness on the way to the promised land?

Avoiding shortcuts and traps where I begin comparing my own journey to yours.

Loving more purely is maybe a good start. By pure love, I mean loving others not in a transactional way with expectations of what they can do for me. Rather, I want to love so others are liberated from all my agendas. I want to love them as echoes of the silent conversation; as reflections of God.

Surrendering my deep need to do these things perfectly or with an expectation of consolation or reward…letting go may also refine the lens.

Right where I am, I long to become less attached to outcomes. To become a sparkling new creature, innocent at the core, breathing with wonder and curiosity, animated by higher Love.

I independently selected products in this post—if you buy from one of my links, I may earn a commission.

Peace to you right where you are.

-michele

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