Are you able to find the joy in the small things in life? I think that really sums up last week’s assignment. I am pretty sure anyone, even a billionaire, would be really happy if they were given a new Corvette. I am glad to be the test subject if anyone wants to give me one to find out! How many of us find true joy and can create a lifelong memory in something small? Scrooge sees how the old Scrooge had a deep experience at Fezziwig’s party. The reflection on that time, and the feelings he recalls from that period, were powerful enough to last to this Christmas day and pull him in once again as he watched the memory of that time replay.

When you thought about what your reflection for last week’s exercise was going to be, did you uncover a series of events that had something in common? Was there a time period in your life the reflections centered around? Was there a place, a person, or an event that acted as a focal point? Were you the giver or the receiver at that event? Take this moment, the insights you are reflecting on here. Ponder how this ties back to the earlier you, the you that you always aspired to be, and the you that feels natural.

I have had the practice of taking in the present for most of my life. I will get the sense of the power of the moment and will find a way to set the memory, the moment, the details of the experience, into my mind. When I go bicycling, I often reflect on how a bicycle brought the world to me. The sound of the wheels rolling down the road, the smell of asphalt in the summer, the sound of the breeze and rustling leaves… the smell of a damp farm field in the morning… all link me back to the countless bike trips I took with my brother and our friends. What did this tell me about myself? It helped me understand that the story and the experience were important to me to record as a memory to be able to go back to. It is important and vital to me to be able to reflect on the adventure but also to discover that I am my happiest as an explorer and thinking about what is over the next hill. I thought I wasn’t good being in the present, but my reflection reminded me that I just have to go back to how I was. For a long time, I really had forgotten how to be present. All I had to do was reconnect with how I processed countless bike trips, camping trips, fishing trips, road trips…and that puts me in the moment. I also came to see I love an adventure. I love to plan for tomorrow’s adventure but the spiritual part of me also knows how to find the joy in the present by taking in the sights, sounds, smells, and essence of now and to safely put that away to reflect on one day in the future.

This Week’s Talk–

Scrooge is wrapping up his time with the ghost of Christmas Past. He has already had a few heartfelt, introspective moments. We have had insights that maybe some degree of humanity still exists in him. Scrooge and the spirit move from observing the festivities at Fezziwig’s business to an emotional meeting between Scrooge and his former fiancé. HIs fiancé begins the conversation that includes the powerful sentence: “Another idol has displaced me.” She then goes on to chide him about his ever-growing focus on wealth and money. Scrooge tries to defend/justify his new focus by stating “There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty”. She tells him, “You fear the world too much.” Then she goes on…”I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, Gain, engrosses you.”

Sadly, as this conversation continues, his fiancé tells him “You were a different man then”. Scrooge agrees and defends himself telling her… “I was a boy”. She responds, “Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are, I am”. What a crushing conversation. Scrooge lacks sufficient situational awareness to stop himself from destroying this relationship there and then with his own words. Have you ever had one of these in-your-face reality moments where you need to stop and really think about your options and make the hard call, but you didn’t? I have. They haunt me to this day. During moments that test me, I am well aware that I failed the test in the past and make sure that I make the right call now. Much of the back story is left to our imagination in this book and associated movies, but it seems reasonable to assume that Scrooge just moved on and never really regretted losing his love. Maybe even worse than getting the call wrong, is failing to ever realize it or at least look back and reconsider the situation.

This Week’s Assignment

“You fear the world too much.” How much harm, destruction, frustration, disappointment and under achieving comes from fearing the world? This block is not an easy one to write because of the pain reflecting on this subject of fearing the world causes me. I think for many this one is not an easy one for you to really dig deep and do the exercises. Unfortunately, it is not hard for me to associate with this idea of fearing the world too much. In my past, I often battled with anger and disappointment over decisions I made out of fearing the world too much. I have made some horrible decisions based on fear. Our mind can be an echo chamber. If you let a thought bounce around in there it will can continue to feed upon itself and take over your thoughts. In the book, and I think in a few versions of the movie, Scrooge expounds “There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty”. Why didn’t Scrooge talk with his fiancé before this moment about his growing fear of poverty? Instead of sharing his fears and actually building a closer relationship, Scrooge worries in isolation, and it takes over his life.

What is your “poverty”? What is it that lurks in the back of your mind that you wish you could talk to someone about? A friend, a spouse, a partner, a priest… It may sound strange but if you can’t yet find a way to talk to a person, talk to your dog, the cat, go out into the woods and talk to the trees. Work on getting comfortable with your issue so that sometime soon, you can talk to someone close to you about it. I wish I had instead of letting my fear of the world consume me and cause me to take some very disappointing actions.

See you next week…