Greetings from all of us here at Serenity Now.
Happy Holidays from all of us to all of you!
So far 2020 has been no joke. I (Brooke) could say other things but I’m not going to. I find myself wondering about this very first holiday season of 2020. It will be a new experience for all of us. I wanted to know if there was something I could do to bring some positivity in the midst of all that is going on.
I found a beautiful message in a Christmas movie I saw on the Hallmark channel called Two Turtles Doves.
The main character was a neuroscientist and had just lost the grandmother who had raised her. In the will, the grandma had left instructions to follow some fun holiday activities that they had all shared together.
In one scene the scientist was doubled over with grief, and even feeling physical pain from it. However, she wanted to honor the last wishes of her loved one who had been a psychologist herself. In the middle of this painful situation she had an “Aha” moment … she told her sister who was also having a really difficult time, “Our brains are full of neurons that are wired together and these connections get stronger or weaker based on our experiences, so what we focus on grows. So if we focus on the sad things, then our brains will theoretically rewire and focus on the sad things, but if we focus on the happy things, those things will grow and our brain will rewire to focus on the love and not the loss”.
The character even had a name for it, “synaptic pruning”. I looked it up and lo and behold it’s an actual thing.
Her words remind me of so much that I know to be true. Especially when she said, “focus on the love and not the loss”. I know what some people have lost is unimaginable. However, there have been moments of love that I have experienced that leave me humble and grateful. So many people went above and beyond, and reached out to me and the store. It left me speechless. Some donated toilet paper and cash knowing that things were happening for the store that were unprecedented. A Course in Miracles says, “All expressions of love are maximal.”(Chapter 1)
The truth is that we love being here for you. We want to be your happy place where these scientific ideas can be practiced through faith.
Let’s celebrate the holidays together and focus on the love.
