Let It Slow

Stephen Cottrell

Description

Christmas is one of the most joyful times of year, and it can also be one of the most stressful. This understanding and uplifting book offers another way to approach December and to discover how its joys and promises can restore our lives, not add to their burdens.

Sujets

• Holidays
• Philosophie et théologie
• Advent
• Religion
• Christmas

Informations

• Publié par: Hymns Ancient & Modern
• Date de parution: 30 août 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781781402115
• Langue: English

Extrait

Church House Publishing
Church House
Great Smith Street
London SW1P 3AZ

ISBN 978-1-7814-0209-2

First published as Do Nothing Christmas is Coming in 2008 by Church House Publishing

This revised edition published 2020 by Church House Publishing

Copyright © Stephen Cottrell 2008, 2020

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored or transmitted by any means or in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission which should be sought from: [e-mail]

Email: [e-mail]

The Author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this Work.

The opinions expressed in this book are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the General Synod or The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England.

Cover design by Richard Pearson

Printed in England by CPI Group (UK) Ltd
 
 
For my family with whom I have shared so many Happy Christmases
With thanks to Kathryn Pritchard and all at Church House Publishing for their support with this little book

 
 
 
What is the point of a once-a-year celebration of consumption and excess in a society entirely dedicated to those broad-buttocked deities month in, month out? Each Christmas we eat too much, drink too much and buy too much. So just what makes December different?
ANDREW MARR
 
Contents
Dedication
Introduction
  1   December
  2   December
  3   December
  4   December
  5   December
  6   December
  7   December
  8   December
  9   December
10   December
11   December
12   December
13   December
14   December
15   December
16   December
17   December
18   December
19   December
20   December
21   December
22   December
23   December
24   December
25   December
A few next steps
Sources
 
Introduction
Most of us lead fragmented and frantic lives. This was true when I wrote this book 12 years ago. It is even more true today. The computer that used to sit on our desk now sits in our pocket, constantly bleeping out its demands. We are in touch with everything and everyone, but we have lost touch with ourselves. If there is an ‘off button’ we lost it years ago. We are also too busy to look for it. The different bits of our life pull in different and conflicting directions. Instagram ready, we run up the down escalator of the 24/7 culture and long for another way.
What’s this got to do with Christmas? Well, before I get completely tangled in a web of muddled metaphors, let me put it plainly: I haven’t got life worked out, and I certainly haven’t got Christmas worked out. It is one of the most joyful times of year. But it is also one of the most stressful. It is laden with expectations. It is often overtaken with grief. It can easily be the time of year when all the conflicting demands and expectations that we experience every day in our dispersed and fragmented lives seem at their worst. It might be the season of good will, but it feels like the last straw on an already overburdened camel. Wise men would not ride this one.
There must be an ‘up escalator’ – another way of inhabiting the world where the fragments of our lives are gathered together and we can live in a more holistic way. There must be another way of celebrating Christmas, where its joys and promises can help put life back together again. So this book offers you a conversation between the imagined voice of the sort of frazzled and fragmented person that many of us become at Christmas, and my own reflections and suggestions on how to make sense of this and start sorting things out. If you need your Christmas (and your life) upgraded and rebooted, read on.
Stephen Cottrell, 2020
 
1    December
“Groan. It’s the first day of December. I’ve got about a hundred Christmas cards to write (and several ghastly round robin letters to read). The kids are opening their chocolate Advent calendars and I’ve just got this poxy book. What’s this all about?”
The four stages of Christmas are:
1.   You believe in Father Christmas.
2.   You don’t believe in Father Christmas.
3.   You are Father Christmas.
4.   You look like Father Christmas.
I think I’m between stages three and four. I give a lot of presents. I’m getting older. I remember the magic of believing in Father Christmas – of waking up on Christmas morning with presents at the foot of my bed. I remember the sober realities of not believing, of horizons narrowing to what is before me.
And now with Christmas just around the corner (and all those cards still to write), I’m surrounded by escalating busyness and can feel my stress level starting to rise. ‘Is there something else to believe in?’ is the question so many people are asking. I think the answer is yes, but there is lots of sorting out to do along the way.

•   Write a Christmas wish list – not things you want to consume or purchase, but things to believe in, things to hope for.
•   Prune your Christmas card list.
•   At least make sure you buy charity cards.
•   Don’t write ’Must see you this year’ on your cards unless you actually mean it. And if you don’t mean it, why are you sending this card at all?
•   Help save the planet by sending email cards, and include a note about which charity the money saved has been donated to.
•   And with all the time you’ve saved, put your feet up for an hour!
Why is Christmas like a day at the office? You do all the work and the fat guy with the suit gets all the credit.
OGDEN NASH