Christmas Is a Season Not Only of Rejoicing but of Reflection

“Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.”

--Winston Churchill

I think we can add Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Years and maybe even a slew of other traditional “family” get-togethers in with Christmas, yes?

Anytime folks come together around special events or days on the calendar can be a time of rejoicing or challenge…all fed by reflection.

If we reflect back upon happy times of good energies and choices made, then we rejoice. If, however, we are reminded of past or remaining pain, negative vibrations or difficult choices from the past, holidays and special events can be tough.

In The Back Forty, we promote a philosophy that says everything that has come before this moment – especially all of those choices, events, people and situations from our front forty (or first half) of life – was simply R & D, research and development, for who we came here to be and what we came here to do.

Inside that model of reflecting upon the past, there are no wrong choices, players, situations or events because, somehow and in some way, everything that has come before was simply laboratory experiments for discovering our own Formula of Unique Self Expression – our FUSE which lights up our second half.

For example, if we consider it a blessing that we remained single, or chose to not have a traditional family, and we actually look at how and why these choices enable us to now be and do something we’re able to be and do because of it, there’s never a doubt about the path we’ve chosen: there’s just the finding and reminding ourselves of its perfection.

We say the first half of life is simply an enabling mechanism for what’s really important – kind of like the cookie is the enabling mechanism to deliver the chocolate chip.  The first half simply carries us into our most important second half which, if mined for the FUSEs of those first-half experiments, provides clues to experiencing a radical and unlimited Back Forty.  Newfound possibilities for play, passion and purpose are the result.

Frank Sinatra sings “The best is yet to come and, babe, won’t it be fine.”  We believe this is the truth of life.  We also believe that you have yet to do what you came here to do.  Regardless of the many achievements and glories of your first half, there’s still a huge play for you to yet make.

So, as you reflect during the holidays on your life lived thus far, we invite you to consider all choices, paths, roads and byways you have taken PERFECT and EXACTLY what needed to happen to enable you to now do and be what you came into this lifetime to do and be.

That angle of reflection inflection, we believe, will set you on a course to having tomorrow and next year be the first day and year of the best of your life.

“What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven't happened yet.”

--Anne Frank