Friday, July 24, 2009

"Are you listenin'?"

I have a metaphor to present.

Do you remember when you were a child, and you believed in Santa? The excitement you had every Christmas Eve, just knowing that if you stayed up just a little longer, if you listened a little harder, you just might hear those bells on his sleigh, and perhaps the clop of tiny hooves on your roof? You just knew that he was coming, and that if you just believed hard enough, if you closed your eyes and just listened, you'd be rewarded with that jingling, and you might even get the chance to sneak down to the living room (in spite of warnings from your parents that to do such was a nigh unforgivable offense) to see if you could at least catch a glimpse of a black, polished boot vanishing up the chimney. However, as the years passed by, and you never heard those bells, you started to wonder.

Do you remember the day when, finally, you accepted his "true nature?" Do you remember the disappointment you felt, knowing that no matter how hard you believed, you just weren't going to hear anything? Not a single hoofstep. Not a single jingle. Nothing.

However... I'm betting that, on occasion, during a soft, brisk night with perhaps a magical glimpse of a snowfall... occasionally you'll stop and listen carefully. You doubt it, but sometimes you just wonder if maybe... maybe you didn't believe hard enough... If perhaps you could have heard those magical bells if you'd tried just a little harder, waited just a little longer... And so you stop, close your eyes, and wait... Of course, a few moments later, you start to feel a little silly, grin to yourself, chuckling wryly while shaking your head, and continue on. You think it's ridiculous, but that urge to listen is still there, gnawing just a little bit.

My question is this...

What do you do if you stop to listen for the bells... and you actually hear them?

4 comments:

  1. You look out the window. You run out into the snow barefoot. You do everything you possibly can to see if your hopes that he might exist are in fact real. You believe. You believe in the process of freezing your toes off and getting a crick in your neck because you're staring at an open sky-- beliving that the evidence of hearing bells will suddenly ring true.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yup. AND you make lots of cookies - sugar, chocolate chip - to lure the bell ringer, if really Santa, to your home. And hot chocolate. And play Christmas Carols. Because whether he really comes down the chimney or not, the spirit of Santa Claus is real.

    I like your blog :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's true, Rachel. Thanks for that. Beautifully said. :-) (And nice touch with the "bells will suddenly ring true" bit.) ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. You wonder what happened, since everyone KNOWS that Santa doesn't ride a sleigh anymore...he rides a BIG, RED FIRE ENGINE on Christmas Eve (at least that's what he was riding the last few times I saw him). :)

    ReplyDelete