Freeing My Mind

Your probably (or hopefully) wondering two things.

1) Where have the blogs been?

2) What has brought on this hiatus?

The answer to both of those questions is actually the problem. While, having an unusually busy travel schedule for December and of course Holiday festivities, the real reason for my prolonged absence from the blogosphere is that I actually have too much to talk about. The problem is that I can’t yet divulge all the goings-on at the Kinsley house. No Lori isn’t pregnant, but our excitement level and feelings of hormonal imbalance are just about equal. I know, once again a vague tease of information, but I promise the wait should be well worth it. So you see, since Freeing My Mind is my avenue to divulge my spiritual, psychological and emotional thought process, it makes that difficult when those thoughts consuming my life are not quite internet ready.

That being said, I’ve decided to lay aside all that I really want to say and go off-topic a bit. Or at least off the course of my current day to day thoughts.

How were my Holidays, you may be asking. (No, I am not attempting to be politically correct in my use of “Holidays”. While I do have a somewhat affinity for Bill O’reilly, at least his zeal for child abuse legislation, I think the man power fueling our crusade to stand for the phrase “Merry Christmas” could be better spent elsewhere. War and poverty for instance. I just like to include the entire holiday season.) Anyway, my holidays were unexpectedly wonderful. For the past few years the season has been filled with a certain of amount of stress and anguish due to increased financial pressure, travel to and from our hometown, balancing time spent between both sides of the family, preparing for the usually busy month of January and lastly, attempting to fight my feeling that Christmas is actually about family. Although this year was actually fairly merry.

Lori has become somewhat infatuated with crocheting. (Thanks Kateland.) At first, I was a little taken back by this new found hobbie. My knowledge of the crochet sub-culture was limited to my belief that the median age of its members was 82. My first thought was that she must be pregnant. I’ve heard that many women began to bake a lot and make things when those first few waves of prenatal hormones come crashing in. I’ve learned that this animalistic phenomena is called “nesting”. Although, it turned out not to pertain to this situation. I’m sure there are ancient feminine factors at work here, but she actually seems to simply enjoy it. I was totally on board the crochet train when I realized that 50% of our outgoing Christmas gifts were going to derive from her obsession. One holiday stress out of my way. Merriness level – 4

The next mountain to overcome would be the usually non-merry task of dividing holiday time between my blood family and my law family. (No spiritual connotation intended. I actually love my law family.) While those of you that have been perfecting this balancing act over the course of decades may have even had to perform this dance across state or international borders, I have still found this to be one of the least merry parts of Christmas all together. Not the family part, I love that, but the actual brainpower required to bring about the most holiday cheer all around. Short of creating detailed spreadsheets including mathematical figures and timestamps or taking a course in orchestra conducting, I think we pulled it off pretty well this year. Another stress out of the way. Merriness level – 7

In previous years, January has been an incredibly busy month. Between the beginning of our winter semester of AwakeU and my usual urge to “do something different” near the beginning of the year, much of my December has been spent contemplating and preparing for the next month. The interesting thing, is that this seems to be my busiest January to date. Although, there is so much happening and so much being birthed that I’ve actually had to give the worry over to God. Imagine that. Yet, another stress out of the way. Merriness level – 9

You may have wondered a bit about my last holiday stress. For a number of Christmas seasons now, I have fought an overwhelming feeling that for me the time is not actually about the birth of Christ, but about family. It’s always seemed that the baby in a manger aspect was simply tacked on or made to fit in. We always said that He was the reason for the season, but the majority of the season was spent focusing on friends and family. I was constantly at war with myself trying to make it about Jesus, when it seemed that my spirit actually wanted it to be about family. This year I finally quit fighting it. It’s difficult for me to simply take a time of year and add in some ritualistic observance of Jesus’ birth. My whole life is spent thinking on and being with Jesus. My whole life is not spent with family. In fact, as I’ve grown older, there are members of my family that I only see during that season. I see Jesus everyday. Now, I’m not one of these people who ban Christmas due to a belief that its origins are pagan. If we were to denounce anything in our culture that has paganism at its roots, then we would have to begin with our church culture. No, for me Christmas is about family. It’s about gathering with people we love and both remembering and creating memories. Jesus is in the midst of it, as He is in the midst of everything, but not as a baby in a manger. Another stress out of the way. Merriness level – 10.

I know this has been out for a while, but I get a lot of readers who might not have seen it. Now this is merry. Be inspired.