Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
Crappy Holidays!

Crappy Holidays!

Last updated on: May 26, 2021 at 8:38 pm by Tom Swiss

Crappy Holidays! 2021-05-26T20:38:45-04:00 Tom Swiss

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This Yuletide season is looking bleak.

I mean, there’s still time for the universe to surprise me, for money to drop out of the sky, and a charming and beautiful single lady to come into my life, and so on…but let’s stick with the likely course of events here. (Even as we work magick towards the less likely outcomes. More on that to come.)

Fingers crossed and knock on wood, for me personally it probably won’t break the record for my own worst holiday season — that was 1990, when my grandfather died on Christmas Day. But it will be that awful, or even moreso, for many people.

And for most of the rest of us it’s not shaping up to be a happy holiday.

So what can we do when things suck?

(Image based on Santa with Christmas tree by Marco Verch under Creative Commons 2.0

Make Good Art

You may have seen or read Neil Gaiman’s brilliant 2012 commencement speech at the University of the Arts, where he advised:

When things get tough, this is what you should do: Make good art. I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician — make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by a mutated boa constrictor — make good art. IRS on your trail — make good art. Cat exploded — make good art. Someone on the Internet thinks what you’re doing is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before — make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, eventually time will take the sting away, and that doesn’t even matter. Do what only you can do best: Make good art. Make it on the bad days, make it on the good days, too.

Making art keeps our energy flowing, or gets it flowing when we are stuck. Even the simplest doodle or bit of doggerel or cover of a cheesy song creates something, shapes a small corner of spacetime into something more beautiful. As a Charles Bukowski poem put it, “it may not be much light but it beats the darkness”. So shine with whatever light you can.

Yule Applications: Make your art, be it painting or baking, as gifts. If you’re a performer, liven up those holiday Zoom get-togethers with your art. (Less pressure than an actual gathering!) Consider putting up holiday decorations as an artistic endeavor — even I, notorious bah-humbuger that I am, am buying new lights this year (which will stay up until Imbolc again).

Help Others

Another way we can shine light out into the world is by helping others. It’s old advice backed up by modern psychological science: helping others is one of the best things are can do for our own well-being. Doing things for others literally helps us save our own lives, by combating the negative health effects of stress; it’s been shown to help reduce chronic pain and control blood pressure.

And when you help others, you are doing the work of the gods.

Yule Applications: It is the “season of giving”, after all. Rather than gifting some cheap piece of plastic out of a on-line catalog, is there something helpful you can do for someone else?

If You’re Going Through Hell, Keep Going

When things are hard like this, it saps our energy. It’s hard to get out of bed, hard to focus and get anything done, hard to move on.

But if we stop in a place where it’s hard to get going, then we get trapped. Physics tells us that “static friction” is a harder force to overcome than “dynamic friction.” We don’t have to move quickly, but we have to keep going. There is a magick to momentum, even small amounts.

Yule Applications: Do the holiday things. Participate in that on-line ritual. Join in that Zoom call. It might be hard to get started! But once you get moving you’ll be glad that you did. And if you’re planing on using the holiday downtime for some projects, do the little things. It’s better to pick a small job like catching up on laundry and actually get it done, than to plan to paint the house and not be able to get started — but the big projects will be easier when you have the small ones out of the way and have some momentum.

Previous Post

November 10, 2020

Samhain Magick: Deer and Planetary Conjunctions

Next Post

December 17, 2020 Getting Things Moving With Frankincense and Myrrh

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2017 52 Makeup 2020 52 Makeup Always Roaming With A Hungry Heart Art Because I Could Not Stop For Death Caught On Video COVID-19 Culture Discordianism Ethics, Virtue, and Right Living History Magic(k), Ritual, and Mysticism My Blogging Life and Times Philosophy Podcast Poetry Random Wednesdays Religion & Politics Seasonal Musings Techno-Pagan Theology Uncategorized Warrior Path Zen

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 March 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 September 2024 August 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 October 2022 September 2022 June 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

According to Romans, what can separate us from the love of Christ?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Unbelief Disobedience Sin Nothing