Don't Eat the Cookies

I don't know if you ever did this as a kid. I did it a few times with varied results. It would be Christmas Eve and almost time for bed, and I wouldn't turn in to dream of sugar plums (whatever they were) until I put out cookies for Santa Claus. Cookies for sure. Milk, not an option since we had a couple of cats and I didn't want Ol' Saint Nick get cat spit in his drink. Why did I do this? Maybe I wanted to reward the Elf for his hard journey through the cold, dark night to our very rural home, or maybe I wanted to influence the old guy. When the Jolly Old Elf got a load of my grandma's oatmeal raisin he'd be so over the moon that he'd not leave just a lot of stuff, but a lot of GOOD stuff!

Sometimes it seemed to work. The yummies would be gone and bright, differently wrapped presents would be piled high. Other times the presents and the cookies both would be there. (Didn't he like no-bakes?) There seemed no rhyme or reason to the pattern of whether cookies made a difference in the Yuletide haul. My attempt to control the outcome, how much loot Santa left me, resulted, at best, inconclusive results.

Then I grew up, grew older and tried to control other events in my life. If I suck up to the teacher, maybe I'll get a better grade. If I put my life on hold maybe he will really love me the way I want. How could he not? I gave him everything he said he asked for, didn't I?

Maybe I tried too hard to control the outcome of events that weren't mine to control. Why did I want to exercise control anyway? Did I love the stress and the pain that my meddling involved? Not really. It must have beat out the idea of dealing with uncertainty.

 Uncertainty is something that fills the world. It is as unavoidable as the air I breathe. When I am focused on fear generated by uncertainty I forget to live in the moment. Uncertainty is just another name for fear of the future and what it holds. I can't control the future because I'm here in the present. I can lay foundations of events and direct them, or try to, in a direction I envision, but often I end up with the future I didn't want when I try to base life on cause and effect. Life is more complex than what I do and when I do it. Plus, quantum mechanics shows us that thoughts have power and if my mind is filled with a vision of fear, likely I will influence my current reality to reflect the bad future I hold in my mind.

 Back to Santa's cookies. I'm still sitting on the fence of whether that old spirit of the holidays is an actual entity, or not. I have experienced personal, anecdotal evidence either way. But as I had children I developed a habit of eating Santa's cookies in the wee hours because I wanted my children to have innocent childhoods filled with magic. My idea of being able to control future events by my actions was alive and well back then.

 One year I forgot to "take care" of the Elf's plate of goodies before morning. Uh-oh. There was nothing I could do. The holiday went well anyway. Maybe Santa was in a hurry, or on a diet, was suggested by some one. Go figure.

 So the point? Well, don't try to orchestrate other peoples' reactions to suit your expectations. Your efforts may be effective, they may not be. What people chose to create is up to them. There are bad choices along with the good. There are desired results alongside tragic results. The only certainty is stress for yourself when you forget to live in the present.

 If you leave out cookies, commit to leaving them for Santa. He'll either eat them or not. Whether you get any loot or not is another variable entirely.