Christmas Presence

Shopping for Christmas Presence

As you brave the crowded malls at this season, what is it you’re shopping for?

“Gifts,” you say.

Yes . . . and, at an unconscious level, much more. For it’s not just presents we seek at this season. We’re also in search of presence.

As a species, something deep inside us drives us to develop rituals. In all of these rituals, we are trying to remember something we have forgotten. Gift giving at Christmas is an attempt to be in touch with an element of ourselves with which we’ve lost touch and that we long to reconnect with.

At Christmas, the decorations, colorful lights, wish lists for Santa, and preparation of Yuletide fare keep alive the hope of discovering what it is we’re seeking. We shop for, and wish for, something we know not quite what. For, no matter that a person picks the perfect gift for us, the fulfillment such a gift engenders is short-lived. The novelty wears off.

Fulfillment doesn’t come packaged in pretty wrapping paper. It’s found not in presents, but in presence.

In his book The Presence Process, Michael Brown explains that the “presence” that fulfills is your own deepest essence. It’s the aspect of you that’s connected to a Oneness that’s the source of everyone and everything that exists. As Saint Paul put it, quoting an ancient poet, “In God we live, and move, and have our being.”

When you awaken to this infinite presence at your center, and discover it as your own fundamental being, you no longer seek an elusive dream. “Seek and you will find,” Jesus said. When you find presence as your essence, all seeking, chasing after happiness, and longing for fulfillment “someday” ceases. You find, in this moment, now, that which you have been seeking!

Michael’s book is incredibly helpful in our search because it shows us the pathway to our inner presence. Each of us is a far richer, deeper, fuller person than we’ve ever imagined ourselves to be, and Michael shows us step-by-step how to take ourselves into this inner fullness.

If you feel fearful, doubtful, insecure, how do you act? You pull back, withdraw, become defensive and protect yourself. But when you feel terrific, your behavior is totally different. Think back to a time you met someone and were in love. It changed everything about you. There was a smile on your face, a spring in your step, a new enthusiasm. The grass looked greener, the sky more blue. How you feel affects everything in your life.

Discovering presence as your essence is like finding a reservoir high in the mountains in the rainy season, filled with water and overflowing. Your inherent sense of fulfillment––that good feeling of being you, when you are really true to yourself––spills over into every aspect of your life, and into the lives of the people around you.

When you feel good, you want to be good. And you want to do good. You want to share the good feeling of yourself with those around you. You want to realize the dream of yourself by overflowing and being a gift to others. This changes how you do Christmas, especially how you shop.

Because you’re no longer trying to appease and satisfy, but simply expressing yourself, shopping for presents takes on the ease and flow of eternal presence. Being in a state of presence is the end of all the frantic shopping to try to get gifts that will make those around you “happy.” Instead, your experience of fulfillment overflows in a generosity that is creative, caring, and therefore uniquely tailored to each individual. Each gift is an expression of your loving presence.

The only acts that are ultimately meaningful are those that in some sense celebrate who you are. Everything else is hollow. Nothing could be more true of Christmas shopping. Let presence well up within you, and you’ll know just what to get for those you care about. Your presence will radiate through the gift, evoking the recipient’s own inherent presence.

Perhaps, for some of the people in your life, the book The Presence Process, or the three CDs connected with it, might be just the right gift. It’s a question of readiness—of timing.

Use Michael’s books and CDs to guide you into your own fullness. Then, this fullness will be your sure guide as you give from a state of presence this Christmas.