🎁 “Let’s Not Deck the Halls”

(A Holy-Day Reclamation of Joy)

Once upon a timeline, I would have been the first to string the lights, cue the carols, and bake the cookies — one for each of the memories of my past. I adored the sparkle, the tinsel, the nostalgic notes of "White Christmas" and “Deck the Halls.” They used to bring me JOY.

But something has shifted.

It wasn’t a bah-humbug moment. It wasn’t rebellion or resistance.

It was simply this: They no longer resonate.

I sat in the car, the familiar tunes floating out of the speakers like ghosts of seasons past — and something in me just… didn’t rise to meet them. The spark wasn’t there. The flame that once danced in tinsel and peppermint bark had moved — not gone out — just moved. Higher. Deeper. Homeward.

No longer do I feel the call to “deck the halls” with ornaments of long-passed years. No longer do I feel the pull to twist myself into traditions just to keep others comfortable. No longer do I feel the need to wrap myself in expectations dressed as garland.

I am not grieving this. I am not “missing the magic.” I am becoming the magic.

🎄 I do not need to light the house — I am the Light.

🎶 I do not need to sing the songs of the old — I am the Song of Now.

🎁 I do not need to unwrap packages — I am the Gift embodied.

This Holy Season — this Turning of Light — is not about boxes or baking or blinking bulbs. It is about Presence, not presents. It is about the flame upon the altar of the Heart, not the candles in the windows. It is about remembering that Christ is not a birth to be celebrated once a year —but a state of being to be lived every moment.

So no, I may not hang the ornaments this year. I may not bake the cookies. I may not even plug in the lights.

But oh, I will shine. I will sing in the silence. I will bake JOY into every breath. I will give the only gift that cannot be wrapped: The full presence of the I AM that I AM.

And to those who ask, “But what about the traditions?” I say, “I honor the past by living the Truth of Now.”

This is not the absence of Christmas —This is the Christing of the Season. A return to what is real. A rebirth of what was always within us.

So let us not "deck the halls" out of duty. Let us adorn the Heart with holy remembrance.

✨ We are the Temple.

✨ We are the Flame.

✨ We are the Wonder we’ve been waiting for.

Saleh to the New. Aa-meen to the Becoming.

~ Akysia ~ The Flame that Chose to Stay ~ 🔥