Chapter Fifty: Winter

Whenever Christmas time comes -- a joyous season that also signals the end of the year -- many people are feeling happy with anticipation as it gradually approaches (some even do a countdown of the days remaining as Maria clearly remembers is the custom in the Philippines). The holiday reminds all of us to take a rest and enjoy the intimate gatherings, to travel to the places we've never been, and spend time for ourselves surrounded by all the people who reminds us of the promise of love.

For most of us, the celebration allows us to seek the need that we should keep moving from places to places. The Yuletide season is a testament to the manifested beauty of the communal effort between human beings required by the motion of the universe that most human faculty could normally understand.

But for some others, Christmastime is an extended stretch of lonely days characterized by the coldness of winter in the longer dark and gloomy nights. This feeling is magnified by the lack of family members who matters, the uncertain destinations, no reason to celebrate, and a missing person that could serve as a worthwhile companion. As much as the holidays offer us a cheerful occasion enough to celebrate, others are prompted by all the circumstances that reminds them of the sadness to be experienced in a seemingly endless solitude.

Perspective also offers little to no consolation as the days come, and all we have are distractions from work. The soul is obviously longing at this point, and it is very visible in the souls that linger through the season without any obligation or cause to celebrate. Positivity cannot condone the situation with hope as it is viewed through someone's own window. Simply put, there is no one else to love, and no company to share the time with. Loneliness has been accurately defined.

And the cold winter air further amplifies the feeling of sadness. The snow gives the eyes a visual feast of whiteness that needs to be shoveled. A white Christmas is in the midst of the season that needs to be appreciated like a postcard, although there is no practical purpose for the scenic, yet lonely, environment that offers no cheerfulness for those who have been accustomed to the climate, but the Christmas decorations within the homes, and outside the houses, are enough reminder that Christmas will come to bring warmth and keep moving forward until the season of spring arrives.

However, it is very hard to move if all you have are dark memories of the winter with no sunshine of hope that can be experienced in a sunny place once the trees finally come to life anew, and when animals can finally get out of their hibernation.

But that is the very promise of Christmas, isn't it? We cut a tree to decorate it, we celebrate in gratitude with a sumptuous feast, everything is warm and cozy inside, and then we instantly identify that what happens inside is what really matters than all the dead surroundings outside that is all covered with snow.

An environment that is sleeping, but alive.

The season tells us that many of us are afforded to have the opportunity to rise again after the gloom and coldness of nature, if only we have the patience to hope. To see the true essence of Christmas in the darkness of the days is what makes it illuminated by the eternal fire that warms and lights the world.

The warmth that comes inside because of the joy that can be experienced holistically, if only we turn our gaze from the Spiritual side of the visible things is what makes the season becomes the reason. The universe is slowly revealing the causes of nature in its relative motion that therefore defines the presence of life.

Life itself is a mystery, and so the secret of life is to keep moving, if one must follow the guiding philosophy that has just been articulated.

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Picture from Pexels.