Imagine the Christmas dining table as a clockface, where the first one to arrive sits at 12 o’clock. We continue clockwise as the next one to arrive sits on their left. Each of us continues to take our rightful place until the most recent joiner of the system pulls up a chair nearest to 12 o’clock to complete the circle. As you slowly look around the circle, beginning with the first to arrive in this system, how does it feel? How does your place in this system influence who you are and how you act – be it at home, at work, anywhere you go?
Now lean back a little and notice that this system doesn’t exist in isolation, rather it’s part of a greater whole. In the same way you are, being part of your birth family and all those who came before as well as being part of another system among newer loved ones, perhaps a family of your own.
As the Christmas season approaches its pinnacle, how lucky are you feeling this year? What if instead of trying to play our cards right at the Christmas dining table, we have a go at playing our cards better by making the most of the cards we’ve been dealt?
If you celebrate Christmas, I wish you a merry one. If you celebrate in a different way, I wish you a merry one, too. And if you prefer not to celebrate, I wish you joy in the choice you have made.
Wishing you and your loved ones much love, light and laughter this winter season!
THE SCHOOL OF PLAY 