{"id":5934,"date":"2013-12-24T10:08:36","date_gmt":"2013-12-24T15:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/?p=5934"},"modified":"2013-12-24T10:08:36","modified_gmt":"2013-12-24T15:08:36","slug":"christmas-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2013\/12\/christmas-presence.html","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Presence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a id=\"overlay_image_anchor_269148\" href=\"http:\/\/www.everystockphoto.com\/photo.php?imageId=269148&amp;searchId=1a1fb4752fee6d5ba597e9fd1a503eb8&amp;npos=10\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"overlay_image_269148\" title=\"Gifts 2\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/everystockphoto.s3.amazonaws.com\/birthday_wrap_wedding_269148_m.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It is Christmas Eve morning and I am snuggled under covers, in flannel jammies, listening to a holiday radio show called The Night Before. It is broadcast on my favorite station WXPN, based in Philly out of The University of Pennsylvania. For two decades, the sleep deprived host, Robert Drake spins holiday hits, Christmas classics and alternative auditory entertainment, for 24 hours from midnight Christmas Eve Eve to midnight Christmas Eve.\u00a0 It is one\u00a0aspect of my annual ritual, along with attending services at Pebble Hill Interfaith Church that I have been part of since 1984. Old home week is what it feels like, where hugs and kisses from friends from way back then, as well as newly met kindred sprits, abound. There is always a creative skit that would have most traditional church go-ers , shake their heads in disbelief, but I believe that the Jesus of my understanding, would appreciate the humor and heart of it. Music is rollicking and energetic and at the very end, we light candles one from the other, sharing our inner light as we do the outer and then holding them up, sing Silent Night. The building is a converted barn and the sloped ceiling contains skylights in which the candle light is reflected. Such sweet peace.<\/p>\n<p>This easing into the day is my gift to myself, since I had, as mentioned in previous Bliss Blogs, been burning my own candle at both ends until there was no more wax left.\u00a0 Taking time to sloooowww it way down, making me-oriented choices and not just other-oriented.\u00a0 Closing my eyes allows me to keep my heart open all the more.<\/p>\n<p>So much effort is spent at holiday time, hustling and bustling about and the truth is that MORE\u00a0 stuff will never be enuff!\u00a0 My take is that the people in your life want less stuff and more YOU. I roll my eyes when I hear how much money people spend and how much worry they invest in getting things &#8216;just right&#8217; and end up in debt and exhausted. Not the Spirit of the season.<\/p>\n<p>I invite you to be aware of the presents that present themselves when you bring your full presence to each moment of your life, not just at &#8216;the most wonderful time of the year&#8217;. Your family and friends will feel that much more blessed and will be glad to re-gift what it is that you share with them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xpn.org\">www.xpn.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pebblehillchurch.org\">www.pebblehillchurch.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; It is Christmas Eve morning and I am snuggled under covers, in flannel jammies, listening to a holiday radio show called The Night Before. It is broadcast on my favorite station WXPN, based in Philly out of The University of Pennsylvania. For two decades, the sleep deprived host, Robert Drake spins holiday hits, Christmas&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":233,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,13,1246,94,49,3,1176,14,25,4,54,15,16,10],"tags":[1800,1172,1179,3566,3565,590,62],"class_list":["post-5934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attracting-what-you-desire","category-bliss","category-blissfull-thinking","category-faith","category-family","category-friendship","category-gratitude","category-holidays","category-how-to-invite-bliss","category-hugging","category-inspiration","category-interfaith","category-living-their-bliss","category-my-personal-bliss","category-spirituality","tag-beliefnet-bliss-blog","tag-christmas","tag-pebble-hill-church","tag-robert-drake","tag-silent-night","tag-university-of-pennsylvania","tag-wxpn"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christmas Presence - The Bliss Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2013\/12\/christmas-presence.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christmas Presence - The Bliss Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; It is Christmas Eve morning and I am snuggled under covers, in flannel jammies, listening to a holiday radio show called The Night Before. It is broadcast on my favorite station WXPN, based in Philly out of The University of Pennsylvania. 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She has also contributed to several anthologies and personal growth books. Edie has interviewed such notables as Ram Dass, Wayne Dyer, Debbie Ford, don Miguel Ruiz, don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. Marianne Williamson, Grover Washington, Jr. Noah Levine, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Weaver, Ben and Jerry and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She calls herself an Opti-mystic who sees the world through the eyes of possibility. 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