Here comes February and with it, of course Valentine’s Day. What better time to talk about love. Ah, amore! We love to be loved, enjoying being in love, long to give love, struggle to find love, have broken hearts because of love, build lives around love, yearn to do what we love and sing songs, write novels and make movies about love. So the question this month is, in the words of the great Tina Turner, “What’s love got to do with it?”

Let’s start by defining what we mean by love. In the Christian tradition the Greek word agape refers to a selfless, altruistic, unconditional love. Joined with eros, a sexual, physical love, two people choose to love each other as they love themselves and to express that love emotionally, spiritually and physically. As many of us know through our own personal experience, agape, this love thing, is a messy business! Why messy? Here are just a few reasons that come to mind:

We focus on what the other needs without considering our own needs.

Maybe you’ve felt this way sometimes: you give and give and give, and no one ever gives back. Sometimes that dynamic happens when we’re in a very dysfunctional situation. But for today, let’s look at this from within ourselves. If I really cared about myself, would I continue to put myself in a situation where my mind, body and spirit were gradually being diminished? All of us have been there to some extent in our lives. And the root cause of our unhappiness? We don’t (or didn’t) really love who we are (or were)– yet. We see our darker side and our failings, without appreciating what we bring to the world. If I don’t love myself, I’ll have a very difficult time making space for someone else to love me. While many of us believe that love is something “out there” waiting for us (or at least that’s what the movies tell us), true love starts from within ourselves. You can only love another to the depth that you love yourself. This Valentine’s Day ~ make time to fall deeper in love with yourself and you will experience your love grow for others. To Thine Own Self Be True . . . . (more…)

When I think about the meaning of Christmas, I think about relationships. The Christmas story itself is about a relationship of a man and a woman and their son, a Father and His Son, and that Son’s relationship with all of us. “Unto us a Child is born.”

Through the years, in the Christian community, as well as the secular community, the season marks a time for families to gather together, to share expressions of their love for each other by spending time together, with gifts and to pause to ponder the power of peace on Earth.

In practical terms, how can you and I create the peace the Christmas season expresses? In the classic Christmas movies many of us must view to feel we’ve really embraced the season, we get some hints. “It’s a Wonderful Life” speaks to the power of family and community supporting each other through the difficult times. “White Christmas” celebrates the joy of giving and the sacrifices our veterans make, “Merry Christmas Charlie Brown” reminds us that the season is not about the decorations and the presents, but a time to remember the meaning of Christmas — Peace on Earth and Goodwill Toward All. And finally, the Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol” in which the ghosts of past, present and future help a bitter Scrooge embrace the people in his life with love.

Life, as you know, never quite plays out like the movies. However, we can commit this Christmas season to manifest peace and goodwill to all in our lives. Here are a few ideas:

• Prepare Early ~ Don’t be a last minute shopper. Organize your list of gifts and celebrations and use each of them as an opportunity to share God’s love. I pray for you joy in abundance and laughter, for laughter and joy makes our spirits soar.

• Keep Christ at the Center ~ Don’t become overwhelmed by commercialism. Read one of the Gospels and think about what it means to have Christ in your life. I pray that you keep Christ in the season because Jesus is the reason for the season.

• Make Christmas a Family Time ~ Do preparations together, decorate the tree, string lights around the house, bake cookies and write cards together. Look for opportunities to laugh and enjoy. I pray for love for your families. Don’t keep your love a secret. Someone needs to hear and feel your love for them.

• Remember those in need ~ Give money through your local church or other charities. Do something for an elderly neighbor or for someone who can’t care for themselves. I pray for you compassion, for we cannot help others until we understand them, and we cannot understand them until we walk in their shoes.

• ReKindle your friendships and contacts ~ Who have you not connected with lately? Give them a call, drop them an email, invite them out for a cup of coffee, get out and make a personal impact today.

  I pray for you a heart so full of love that every day you must give some away to those whose paths you cross.

• Remember and support our troops ~ While we are enjoying a festive Christmas season, they are sacrificing their lives for us by defending our freedom. Please prepare packages and send them to our military overseas. I pray that you remember the great people in our military in our prayers and our service to them. Remember, freedom is not free!

• Forgiveness ~ Do you have a friendship that is strained? Did you injure a relationship with words or deeds? There is no better time for forgiveness than now. The first person that you ask for forgiveness for is yourself. Forgiveness is freeing up and putting to better use the energy once consumed by holding grudges, harboring resentments, and nursing unhealed wounds. It is rediscovering the strengths we always had and relocating our limitless capacity to understand and accept other people and ourselves. I pray for you tears when you need them, for tears clear the eyes to see the stars and cleanse the soul to let the healing begin.

• Gather your family and attend a Christmas Worship Service ~ Church is still the best place to hear the message of the birth of our Savior. Reevaluate your commitment to serve Christ. There is no better response to Christmas than a renewed spirit. I pray for you unwavering faith, for faith shapes our morals and our destiny and draws us closer to God.

Those are a few suggested actions, but each of us needs to search our own hearts. I am confident that when you do, you will know the ways you will bring peace on earth and goodwill to all this Christmas season.

I wish you a very blessed and Merry Christmas!

Blessings in abundance,

Sharon McGee  

What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.

Joseph Addison (d 1719)

November is upon us and as you read this blog I will be running, once again, in the New York Marathon.  Running a marathon has become more than a personal achievement, although, those first marathons definitely focused on personal achievement!  I return to New York not just to run a race, but to gather with friends, celebrate life and join together to raise money for one of my favorite causes, Team for Kids.  A program of the New York Road Runners, Team for Kids fosters healthy, fit and motivated kids by bringing free and low-cost running programs to schools and community centers.  When I cross the finish line this year, I won’t be a lone marathoner, but I will cross with the hundreds of thousands of kids who will benefit from the Team for Kids programs.  Believe me.  After over 26 miles, there’s nothing like imagining all of those healthy, smiling faces!

Almost all of us have been impacted by the financial downturn in one way or another, struggling with our financial commitments, experiencing a slow down in work, having less or no income, and in some cases, the loss of a job.  So what I am about to say will sound counter intuitive, maybe a little crazy.  However, I have found in my life, when the path becomes difficult, when failure looms and I can’t seem to catch a break, if I shift my focus away from myself and out to others, I find ways to shake things up!

Ralph Waldo Emerson said service “is one of the most beautiful compensations in life, that no man can ever help another without helping himself.”  How true that is!  I want to challenge all of us this November, to turn our focus outward with a giving heart.  And in the act of giving, I know all of us will find that we receive more than we give.

Let me give you an example.  Another of my favorite charities is Food for the Poor.  This  international relief organization feeds 2 million poor every day. Their various relief programs and projects reach out to children and the poorest of the poor by providing food, housing, health care, education, water projects, emergency relief and micro-enterprise assistance in the Caribbean and Latin America.  If you go to their website you will see the Forty Days of Thanks project.  By setting aside fifty cents every day for forty days you change the lives of the starving poor.  Imagine that!  You may carry a burden about how to make the next car payment or house payment or may be seeing lower profits in your business, but for the cost of six lattes over a period of forty days you can keep a child from starving. 

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Winston Churchill

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

Maya Angelou

Please join me this November in a spirit of giving.  Check out the “Giving Back to the Community” page of my website to see links to charities I actively support (and don’t miss the pictures from this year’s Run for the Wall) or give of your time, talents or resources to a charity dear to your heart.  And let me hear from you.  I’d love to post your story and photos of your giving in November to inspire us all.

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain.
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

Emily Dickinson

Wishing you a great day,

 Sharon McGee