![\"Traditional](\"http:\/\/commons.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:ShugiMizuhiki.jpg\" "\\"Traditional")
<\/a>I think I’m finally done freaking out about hearing Christmas carol muzak in early November and am easing into the holiday spirit. \u00a0We’ve made some travel arrangements, found some fun gifts and are going on the prowl for great light displays tonight when it gets dark.\u00a0Granted, with grown-up kids and the majority of grandkids little enough to prefer an empty water bottle to a Wii, our approach is pretty mellow. \u00a0Despite some pressing project deadlines I’m relaxed enough to notice that lots of \u00a0people are completely frazzled.<\/p>\n
Although I understand it far too well, I find it sad that in our quest to find “the perfect present” many of us render ourselves completely absent. \u00a0Spending too much, over-packing our schedules,\u00a0eating fast food on the way to the mall…YIKES! \u00a0How many ways can we use “creating the perfect holiday” to numb ourselves and detach? What would happen if we chose to prefer presence over presents?<\/p>\n
presence<\/strong>\u00a0|\u02c8prez\u0259ns|n. \u00a0the\u00a0state\u00a0or\u00a0fact\u00a0of existing,\u00a0occurring,\u00a0or\u00a0being\u00a0present\u00a0in\u00a0a\u00a0place or thing:\u00a0his presence\u00a0still\u00a0makes me smile<\/em> \u2022\u00a0a person or thing\u00a0that\u00a0exists\u00a0or is present in a place but is not seen: the crowd became aware of a\u00a0powerful presence.<\/em><\/p>\n I love dictionaries and the shades of meaning they can bring us. \u00a0When I read this definition I thought about all of the unnecessary difficulties we humans (and especially parents) tend to create for ourselves. \u00a0Let’s face it: with the day-to-day struggles so many people face there are already plenty of opportunities to practice our “refuse to lose” skills.<\/p>\n My dictionary went on to tell me about ‘related phrases.’ The one that popped out was “presence of mind: the ability to remain calm and take quick, sensible action.”<\/p>\n Is there “quick, sensible action” you can take to reduce your stress and be more present through the coming weeks? \u00a0 Stop. Connect. Breathe. Enjoy.\u00a0 Be more present. \u00a0That’s a gift your kids can enjoy every day.<\/p>\n Do we really need to create more stress and drama? What if our presence — that very fact of BEING — is enough for the people who love us? Parents can choose the presence of mind to reduce holiday stress for their families. What a gift.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[68,149,190,228,230,311,383,570],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-2752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-four-foundations","tag-christmas","tag-family","tag-gift","tag-holiday","tag-holiday-stress","tag-love","tag-parents","tag-values"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2752"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=2752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Related articles<\/h6>\n
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