Merry Christmas, Reader!

I hope you had a beautiful and holy holiday! I pray the reality of the infant God born in a manger was able to impact you in a deep and lasting way. My friend told me the other day she hoped it was soul-piercingly beautiful and I can't get over how perfect her word choice was.

Yes, I hope yours was that...

But, maybe you haven't had the time to sit with the mystery of it all long enough to let it sink in that deeply.... well, in that case, I pray you make the time for that this Christmas season. It's not too late!! (*Sidenote: The Christmas Season Proper lasts for the full 12 Days of Christmas all the way up until Epiphany on Jan 6. Some people continue to celebrate it until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord - the following Sunday, but the last official Christmas feast is Candlemas on Feb 2, or the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin - a full 40 days after Christmas). We go into these as part of the bonuses for the Advent Retreat).

In case you wouldn't even know where to begin to let the depth of Christmas really sink in and impact you, here are my top two suggestions:

• Seek Silence and Make Time for Contemplation. Learn about mental prayer if you haven't already. Try to build it into your daily routine and spend enough time with it to find your style.
• Remember the Reality. This isn't just a romantic story of one time event in a distant past, this is a real opportunity with living, breathing ramifications in the here and now, in YOUR life. YOU are seeking Him as the wise men did, YOU prepare space in your heart, YOU offer your gift, and He is born to you, in you, and for you.

I pray you find Him... as He seeks for you.

In case those suggestions are not practical enough for you at this moment I thought I'd send you a more tangible gift as well, just a Merry Christmas from me to you for being here.

You can use this lockscreen for your phone or tablet to remind you that in every moment everything (including technology) can be used intentionally, to propel us closer to our goal, that of Closeness with God. It's a simple reminder every time we look at our phones to stay grounded and focused in our purpose and in our peace.

Sidenote: An argument for lockscreens ;)

Once upon a time I gave a symposium on foreign language acquisition whose premise was that, especially for isolated countries such as the US without as much linguistic diversity, that as we become increasingly immersed in technology all we have to do is change the language of our technology (including entertainment) consumption to the foreign language of our choice and we immediately have a mini immersion environment from which to learn language. It's no different with our pursuit of God... we simply must point everything in our environment toward Him, our technology, our entertainment, our food and drink, our relationships, etc. Point them toward Him and we will find Him without delay.

How do you stay grounded, centered, and focused in these oh-so-important days?

I'd love to know!! Please do hit reply and share and maybe it will be able to become the source of future content!

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Speaking of staying grounded and focused...

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We are heading into a New Year. For me, I like to use the beginning of Advent (the beginning of a new Liturgical year) as my New Year because it helps me to spend a whole month discovering exactly what the tone for this calendar New Year will be based on the Gift I brought to the Manger at Christmas. This way I can begin the New Year with my Christmas resolutions in mind. I read a really neat article yesterday from PsycologyToday about the need to shift our New Year's Resolutions "from Goals to Values". I loved this article because it is the entire premise behind the Frim Head to Heart email series we pioneered last year. If you feel like this kind of goal setting series could help you make real progress this year, I invite you to get started below.

Note: If you signed up last year, you will be grandfathered into this year's series, no need to do anything on your part.

$5.00 From Head to Heart A special, 5 week, January email series that desires to change our approach to Goalsetting for Type A Christians. This... Read more Sign Me Up!

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One LAST PSA

Lent is coming in fast this year so I will also have to be sending a separate special email about that soon.

Savor these remaining quiet days of Christmas because they will grow and change and morph into new seasons as quickly as they came.

ALWAYS,

<3

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