On a 24th of December many Christmas' ago, while I was still living in Montréal the unthinkable happened as we were getting ready to celebrate this special day.
Water 💦 was dripping through the roof into our bedrooms with no end 😱 I mean it was huge, we had to call the insurance, we needed to clean up ... honestly it was a big, ugly mess.
The thought of a quiet Christmas was gone within seconds as we tried to get this flood under control, different people showing up in our home with noisy fans, walking all over the place.
Once things had calmed down many hours later, it was the evening and all we wanted to do was to celebrate our Christmas 🎄... but of course we had forgotten all about our food. Usually, we spend all afternoon cooking together 👩🍳 👨🍳 preparing a dinner with many courses.
That day we had to come up with a quick alternative to our well-established tradition and out of this horrible circumstance 💦 a new family tradition was born ... our family Christmas picnic 🧺 dinner. Almost every year now we prepare little dishes that come together as one beautiful meal and depending on the year there will more or less dishes. Now when we cook together, we still smile about the fact that something so wonderful had come out of that horrible situation man years ago.
This experience taught me all about TRADITIONS and how new ones are born …
It made me realize that we have a choice in what traditions we wish to keep, and which ones can let go of because they have become old & stuffy. Often, we live traditions without ever examining if they still fit with who we are, if they represent our values and if we have fun 💃 with them.
Added to these insights comes the layer of multicultural living. Once you have lived in several places and you have stepped outside of your familiar traditions and you see how many others there are, it's clear that yours is only ONE of many. Taking the time to choose becomes a personal affair & choice. Yet recognizing yours and creating your own “set” of traditions takes courage, but that is another story 📒
Is there a new tradition that you have created? It does not even have to be connected to Christmas or the month of December. Do share it in the comments - I have to admit, I want to know.
With love & clarity
Ariane xoxo