By: Tamera Krause
I have what some might consider to be a serious obsession with Hallmark movies. I LOVE Hallmark movies and especially Christmas movies! Maybe it’s because they are safe and predictable---you KNOW how the movie will end (with that beautiful kiss!) -- strangers meet and fall in love before the two hour movie is over, high school sweethearts see each other after 15 years and still have that spark, or families that lived next door to each other and were arch enemies in 5th grade but now they come home for the holidays and shazaam!! they have that unexplainable pull to one another.
Last week in Denver we had our first significant snowfall and got to enjoy a snow day from school. What would you guess that I did in my unexpected free time? Laundry? Clean up the kitchen? Organize my sock drawer? (well I honestly did do that!) but you guessed it, I watched a couple of Hallmark movies about Christmas!!
The Christmas Train, based loosely on a short novella by David Baldacci, was “fairytale-like” but still had enough reality for me to get sucked in! The first thing that grabbed me was the fact that it took place on a TRAIN over four days before Christmas Eve. No one was in a rush to get to their destination and there was time to slow down and drink a cup of tea, look at the passing scenery, make new friends, or get to know your traveling companion better--- my first lesson during the holiday season—don’t rush through events or time with family and friends thinking about the NEXT work party or family dinner in the schedule. BE PRESENT!!!
Another thing that struck me was that the two main characters, Tom and Ellie, worked together all over the world and fell in love, yet lost touch 10 years earlier and now realize that they didn’t say so many things that they should have when they were together. We have talked a lot about how being vulnerable is NOT a weakness but a strength and something we should all try to achieve. Lesson #2---do not EVER miss a chance to say something to someone you love or to share that word of encouragement that you think someone might need to hear. BE TRANSPARENT!
The Christmas Train brings many interesting characters onto the train as complete strangers, feeling like family when they get off, opening their hearts to each other, “making conversation”, just saying “hello”, because--“tis the season”. Passengers begin sharing life and find that they have much more in common than what is perceived on the outside. Think of the things we could learn from each other and the lives we would TOUCH if we just opened up to one another, just made ourselves available to that new friend or that old cousin we have never talked to much at Thanksgiving dinner. Lesson # 3~BE AVAILABLE.
With the onset of this holiday season and Advent, I want to encourage each one of us to BE Present ~ BE Transparent ~ BE Available…To look within yourself and find that child-like faith to believe what YOU may need most in your heart this season. To give freely to someone that needs YOU. To enjoy the lights and the music and the decorations like you are experiencing them for the first time, or through the eyes of a child.
Find an evening in the next few weeks to enjoy a “cheesy” Hallmark movie with a girlfriend, your Mom or a daughter and enjoy being together, not rushing to get somewhere or to be with someone else, but be a little vulnerable and see the beauty IN the season.