I love Christmas and the Festive Season, I love how it brings people together. I love the coziness this period entails, with the little lights in the streets and the jingle bells. However what makes me less happy is the tendency to over-consume which is apparently inseparable with this time of the year.

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In the days leading up to Christmas our supermarkets look as though there is going to be a famine. It seems that each year there is an increasingly need for more stuff and presents. All things we might want but certainly don’t need. We have the tendency to put so much food on the table, more than we can ever eat, without taking into account the impact of this feast on our environment.

It remains a crazy phenomenon don’t you think? We tent to eat until we realize we are uncomfortably full and then complain about our weight followed by our resolutions to eat less and sport more in the coming year.

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Every year I feel into this situation and I sit with an uncomfortable feeling. And every year again I hope and hold the intention to inspire friends and family having a more sustainable Christmas celebration. To make choices that not only serve ourselves but also others around us.

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However, being a lonely green ranger in my family I found it very difficult to be heard and get everyone on board without being perceived as the one ‘spoiling the atmosphere’. And apparently I am the only one to see the irony in this.

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While Christmas is about being together in Love we tend to get rather selfish an close our hearts and eyes for the suffering related to our consumption, or suffering in general. Do we really need to eat that nearly extinct fish? Do we really need so much meat? Do our kids really need more toys? How about consuming less this year, and instead donate money for people with real needs? This is the perfect time of the year to be grateful and honor our planet with all its living beings. How about not giving presents, but giving a gift to the world. The gift of buying less.

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This being said, I promised myself to be less judgmental and more acceptant of what is. Acceptance, however, doesn’t mean giving up, on the contrary.  From this place of loving acceptance I am still eager to see the change this world needs. It means I no longer want to be right, but I want to be happy.

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Happy Holidays to all.

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Esther